"This isn't just shameless, it's utterly shameless!" After Platini's interview, an Italian reporter complained privately. "How can he so blatantly support Lyon? He's the UEFA president! Saying 'I'm here as a Frenchman' is bullshit! Does he think we're all fools just because he won't admit it himself?"

"I'm really worried about Napoli now..."

"We all know what kind of person Platini is. We all know what he's done... He says UEFA never manipulates matches, but we all remember what happened at Stamford Bridge earlier this year!"

The "Stamford Bridge incident" the reporters were referring to was the Champions League semi-final between Chelsea and Barcelona earlier that year.

Chelsea had previously achieved a 0-0 draw away from home, which was a very good result. They only needed to win at home to advance to the final.

The result of that match... remains highly controversial to this day. The referee became the undisputed star of the match, and every one of his decisions was highly questionable. He only made one call that favored Chelsea, and even that was wrong... and that wrong call gave the Barcelona players an excuse to retort—"Look, the referee even sent one of our players off, how can you say he's biased towards us?"

But that was the reality... Chelsea players were brought down in the Barcelona penalty area, but the referee turned a blind eye. Barcelona players handled the ball in their own penalty area, but the referee turned a blind eye.

Ballack and Drogba even stopped playing and surrounded the referee, protesting loudly.

But it was useless.

At Stamford Bridge, amidst the boos of tens of thousands of Chelsea fans, Norwegian referee Tom Henning repeatedly extinguished Chelsea's hopes.

In the 81st minute of the second half, Pique made a mistake when controlling the ball in the penalty area, and the ball hit his outstretched right hand. The referee ignored this obvious handball. At that time, Chelsea were leading by one goal, and if this handball had been called a penalty, Chelsea could have secured the victory.

The second handball occurred in the fifth minute of injury time. Ballack's shot in the penalty area hit the upper left arm of a defender who was trying to block the shot. The referee, who was standing close by, waved play on. At that time, Barcelona had leveled the aggregate score to 1-1 with a goal by Iniesta in the 93rd minute. If this penalty had been awarded, Chelsea would have won the game and advanced to the Champions League final for the second year in a row. But the referee showed no reaction.

In addition to these two obvious penalties, there were many other questionable decisions by the referee. In the 23rd minute, Malouda broke through Alves on the left, and although the referee called a foul, replays showed that the foul occurred inside the penalty area, not outside. In the 26th minute, Drogba dribbled into the penalty area, and Abidal pulled and kicked the 'Beast' to the ground. If not for his foul, Drogba should have been able to complete a one-on-one shot, but the referee did nothing.

Of course, the referee is not a machine, he is a human being, and humans will always make mistakes. One or two mistakes in a game is nothing. But so many mistakes in one game, and all the victims were Chelsea, made people suspicious.

After the game, some media questioned the referee's decisions.

The entire Chelsea team could not accept such a result. At home, they didn't lose to Barcelona. Their tactics were successful, and the players performed well. It wasn't until the 93rd minute that the powerful Barcelona scored a goal. And if the referee hadn't interfered with their emotions, it's hard to say whether that goal would have happened... They lost to the referee. This frustrating way of losing made it difficult for the Chelsea players to suppress their anger. After the game, Drogba was the first to rush onto the field and confront the referee. When his teammates pulled him away, he shouted into the camera, "This is a fucking disgrace! You don't deserve to be respected! How could you do such a thing? Disgrace! Disgrace! You're a fucking disgrace!" He pointed at the referee Henning as he left the field, as if to tear him to pieces.

In the end, Barcelona, thanks to Iniesta's goal, advanced to Rome and defeated Manchester United 2-0 in the final. Guardiola won six titles in his first season managing the team, and this Champions League title was crucial. Looking back, this semi-final was probably the most crucial step in the Barcelona dream team's dynasty...

After the game, the media questioned the match, but they were much more rational than the angry fans. They did not accuse Barcelona of bribing the referee because that would be very difficult, and it was unlikely that Barcelona would do such a thing.

The answer was simple. Everyone turned their attention to UEFA President Platini.

Platini had expressed his support and love for Barcelona more than once, which earned him the nickname "Godfather Platini." But this time, it had little to do with Barcelona. If other teams had faced Chelsea in this match, they would have benefited as well.

Because this was essentially a contest between UEFA and the English Premier League.

From the 2006-07 season, the 2007-08 season, and the 2008-09 season, for three consecutive seasons, three of the four teams in the Champions League semi-finals were English teams, and those three teams were all the same: Manchester United, Chelsea, and Liverpool. The only difference was the other team. In the 2006-07 season it was AC Milan, and in the remaining two seasons it was Barcelona.

Not only that, but from the 2004-05 season, for five consecutive seasons, a team from the Premier League had reached the final, and had won twice. The 2007-08 Champions League final even became an all-English affair, with Manchester United and Chelsea battling for one hundred and twenty minutes in the rain at the Luzhniki Stadium, before Manchester United winning on penalties.

And last season's Champions League semi-finals looked very likely to develop into an all-English affair as well, at which point Platini, who had been忍无可忍 (rěn wú kě rěn - reached the end of his patience), finally took action! He absolutely could not tolerate the Champions League final, which represents the highest honor and the highest level of European football, becoming the European FA Cup!

After observing the first leg and finding that Chelsea were very tenacious, holding Barcelona to a 0-0 draw away from home, he realized that if the story continued like this, the audience would have to watch Chelsea and Manchester United meet in the final again... Wouldn't those viewers who turned on their TVs to watch the Champions League final think they had traveled back in time a year?

In fact, Platini's dissatisfaction with the Premier League had been around for a long time, but he didn't have the power before. Now that he had become UEFA president, he naturally wanted to curb the power of English football. He believed that the Premier League's pursuit of money was detrimental to football, and that in the long run, football would be completely controlled by money. He wanted to break away from the Premier League's business philosophy, so he started to introduce new policies, requiring all teams to balance their income and expenditure by 2012, and that transfer funds must come from their own operating income, and not from external investment. This was like a bolt from the blue for many Premier League teams that had been acquired by foreign capital.

After trying to control the Premier League teams financially, he started to focus on the competition. He couldn't control the Premier League, but the UEFA Cup and the Champions League were his territory, and he had the final say there, didn't he?

That's why the Stamford Bridge incident happened earlier this year.

After the game, Henning admitted that he had made some calls in the match, which was obviously an attempt to take all the responsibility on himself.

But many media still pointed the finger at Platini's UEFA.

UEFA has always insisted that the results of the draws are random, but repeatedly putting those teams with storylines together, once or twice could be a coincidence, but three, four, or five times? One couldn't help but suspect that there were deliberate arrangements.

Birds of a feather flock together. FIFA has had vote-buying scandals, and the Asian Football Confederation has used every means possible in the competition between East Asia and West Asia for many years. So, to naively believe that UEFA is a fair, just, efficient, and honest organization is undoubtedly the biggest joke of the century.

Those European media outlets that cover European football are also very clear about what kind of organization UEFA is, and criticisms of UEFA are endless. But UEFA always has ways to suppress these voices. After all, they rule the entire European football, and their power is unimaginable.

Now, some Italian reporters are worried that Platini will extend his influence to Napoli's away game against Lyon.

The reason?

It's too simple. Platini is French, and he always has to consider the interests of French football, otherwise, he won't be able to explain himself at home.

Porto obviously can't bring any glory to French football, only Lyon's performance can guarantee a Champions League spot for a French team, which is crucial. No matter what method is used, it must be ensured that Lyon appears in the next stage of the knockout stage, and then they should be drawn together with Lyon's nemesis Real Madrid... Real Madrid can continue their dream of reaching the quarter-finals, while Lyon is almost guaranteed a place in the top eight.

What a well-calculated plan...

However, all of the above is just speculation by the reporters. In the absence of evidence, and even before the game has started, they cannot jump out so arbitrarily and insinuate accusations against Platini.

All the answers and the truth will become clear when the game comes...

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Compared to the scheming reporters, the Napoli players obviously didn't think so much. They even felt honored that Platini was watching the game, and that they had the opportunity to show UEFA's president the best version of Napoli.

Maybe they could even win UEFA's favor because of this...

Of course, they knew that Platini was French, but obviously everyone was willing to believe that such a big figure's words had weight and principles, and that if he said he was supporting Lyon as a Frenchman, then that was the case.

As a Frenchman, it's normal for him to cheer for Lyon... Maradona was cheering for Napoli before this game, and he's not even Italian.

However, Chen Yingxiong suddenly asked a question that many of his teammates didn't immediately understand.

"Do you think... if we win against Lyon away from home, will Platini be unhappy?"

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ps, The outburst has begun!

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