Real Madrid beat Barcelona 3-1 away and put one foot into the Champions League semi-finals.
But interestingly, this match did not make the front pages of major media outlets afterward.
It was not because the game was not important enough, but because even bigger news had arrived.
On the night of the match, FIFA posted a disciplinary notice on its official website, announcing that Barcelona would be banned from player transactions for 14 months, covering two transfer windows.
The reason for the punishment was that Barcelona violated regulations when signing U18 players.
As soon as the news came out, it caused an uproar.
This was arguably the heaviest fine in history.
In Gao Shen's previous life, Barcelona did receive such a punishment, but they quickly moved into crisis PR mode and kept appealing, eventually managing to delay the execution of the punishment, allowing them to sign players in the 2014 summer transfer window.
Gao Shen did not fully understand the specifics at the time, but now he had a clearer picture.
The so-called violations could be traced back to 2001, when FIFA introduced a series of transfer clauses aimed at protecting underage players, such as Article 19 of the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players.
According to the rules, players under the age of 18 are not allowed to play football abroad.
At this point, everyone must be wondering how that is possible.
Setting aside Messi, who predated these measures, look at recent years. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, and Premier League teams like Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, and Leeds United have all recruited globally.
Especially a club like Leeds United, have they not made many such signings in recent years?
Not to mention those under 18, even teenagers born in the late 1990s are being recruited. Is that not even more outrageous?
But in 2007, FIFA established a transfer inspection system based on these clauses, with a component specifically overseeing the transfers of players under 18.
So what about the signings made by clubs like Leeds United?
The answer lies in three special exemptions in the terms.
One, the player lives near the border, within 100 kilometers of a club in a neighboring country. Two, the player is over 16 and the transfer is within the EU. Three, the player's family relocates to the country of the club for non-football reasons.
It is clear FIFA did consider various scenarios.
But there is a saying that suits this well: for every policy, there is a countermeasure.
FIFA has clear regulations, and clubs find ways around them.
The most common method is the third exemption, where the player's family relocates for non-football reasons.
What does that mean?
For example, if Mbappé were to move from France to Leeds United, how would it be done?
Would Leeds United directly offer Mbappé's family jobs?
No, that is explicitly forbidden. The relocation must be for non-football reasons, and the jobs cannot come directly from Leeds United.
Therefore, Leeds United would need to first "help" Mbappé's family find employment in the UK, and the whole family would "move" to the UK to live, allowing Mbappé to join Leeds United's academy.
Do you understand?
In reality, there are many ways to navigate these clauses. Because of this, FIFA's rules were rarely enforced strictly.
If they were, Real Madrid, Barcelona, and almost all clubs in Europe's top leagues would suffer.
Who has not done this?
In fact, FIFA's real purpose in establishing these clauses was never to stop top clubs from recruiting young talent, but to avoid money laundering and illicit deals, so enforcement often turned a blind eye.
You might ask, since everyone does it and FIFA usually adopts a "no investigation unless reported" approach, why punish Barcelona now, and so severely?
The reason is simple. Someone reported Barcelona.
In early 2013, FIFA found that Barcelona had violated transfer regulations for 10 youth players between 2009 and 2013 and banned six of them, including three Korean players.
But what was the issue?
More than a year passed, and Barcelona did not carry out a thorough rectification. It was even seized upon by someone with ulterior motives, who reported it to FIFA anonymously, listing in great detail which specific regulations Barcelona had violated.
In that situation, what could FIFA do?
They had punished Barcelona a year earlier and sounded the alarm, yet the club still did not clean up the mess.
In that case, how could they not impose severe penalties?
This might seem minor, but it actually exposed a very serious problem.
Even Gao Shen's first reaction when he saw the news was, "Does Barcelona not have compliance and risk control?"
Is this not the basic awareness all normal companies and institutions should have?
But soon, Gao Shen understood.
Not just Barcelona, many football clubs, and even many superstar players and famous coaches, have little awareness of this.
For example, Chelsea actually arranged for Mourinho to meet Ashley Cole in person to discuss the Arsenal left-back's prospects after joining Chelsea.
That was simply outrageous, was it not?
Look at what Barcelona has done in poaching players over the years. Do these actions not show they do not follow the rules?
Many people say Real Madrid like to poach other clubs' stars, but Real Madrid usually do things in an orderly manner.
There are many ways to navigate youth recruitment, not only the three exemptions above, but also a series of other methods. Yet Barcelona seemed too lazy to use them.
There was probably a belief that FIFA would not investigate closely anyway.
After FIFA's careful review and warning, Barcelona still did not make substantive changes, perhaps because the punished parties were youth players.
Gao Shen clearly remembered there was talk in Barcelona at the time that there were 15,000 underage overseas players in Catalonia, and if FIFA rules were strictly applied, all would be non-compliant.
Was that not a challenge to FIFA?
It is like riding a motorcycle without a helmet and being stopped by the police, then pointing at other riders and saying, they are not wearing helmets either, why arrest only me?
The problem is, the police warned you yesterday, reminded you there would be a crackdown, and told you to remember to wear one.
What was even more outrageous was that after being punished by FIFA, Barcelona held a press conference to explain themselves and vaguely hinted that there was a mastermind behind the attack on Barcelona.
Gao Shen found this unbelievable.
By contrast, Leeds United had a very complete compliance and risk management system. Whether contacting players or making major decisions like transfers, there would be an assessment plan to ensure compliance with the rules of FIFA, UEFA, the local FA, and the government.
The team also invested heavily in this area every year. The legal advisory team specialized in studying these rules and making recommendations to avoid such outrageous operations.
Barcelona is such a big club, and they even have a vice president specifically responsible for legal affairs, yet they ended up causing such a mess. The key issue is that even after being punished, they were so slow to react. It is truly unbelievable.
…
"You know what? Every time I see how these top teams operate, even clubs like Manchester United, I really feel it is unfair that Leeds United are not more successful."
When Gao Shen returned home and mentioned this to Su Qing, he found it extremely funny.
He could not understand how such things could happen in a normal company.
The key point was that Bartomeu issued a statement early in the morning saying that they knew in November last year that FIFA was going to punish them, but in the past four months, both Barcelona and the Spanish Football Federation were told there would be no punishment at all.
This was why Barcelona had been slow to act.
If there had been no explanation, it would have been fine. But once explained, the veil was torn off.
Translated, it basically meant: we knew we would be punished last November, but we obtained inside information through certain special channels that it would all be talk and no action, and it would not be implemented.
This was quite something.
"After all, it is still a management issue." Su Qing also felt it was outrageous.
Even without mentioning the punishment in early 2013, since they knew in November they were going to be punished, should they not have made amends quickly?
How could they be so careless and assume there would be no real punishment?
"They are simply too self-righteous and do not deserve their positions," Gao Shen pointed out bluntly.
"Exactly. With bloated management, overstaffing, and a lack of basic analysis and judgment, combined with blind faith, it led to the current situation."
At this point, Su Qing smiled bitterly. "In fact, whether it is FIFA or UEFA, they are not entirely proper either. There are too many gray areas. This has led to deep waters in the industry, with unspoken rules rampant. Gradually, people start ignoring the rules and even basic compliance."
"So, how could we at Leeds United fail? What reason is there for us not to succeed?" Gao Shen was particularly confident.
Leeds United were among the best in management.
"It is not as exaggerated as you say." Su Qing smiled. "But sometimes I really feel these clubs, even some of the wealthy ones, should seriously reform their management mechanisms. After all, these are transactions involving tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of euros. How can they be so careless?"
Let us not even mention corruption, which is widespread.
When it comes to risk management, especially in player transfers, there are probably no more than five teams in the world that can fully assess it.
As explained in Football Economics, these clubs' transfers often follow a herd mentality.
For example, if a player shines at a World Cup, his value can increase tenfold overnight.
That is outrageous, is it not?
From the perspective of ability, does it mean a player becomes dramatically stronger after playing in a World Cup?
The answer is obviously no.
The main factor behind skyrocketing prices is that as performances capture global attention, the player's name becomes more famous, more teams enter the race, demand increases, and prices naturally rise.
As for how much they rise, is that not just a matter of narrative?
This involves how a club conducts transfers.
This is a must-have skill for almost all so-called black shops.
Leeds United are also very experienced in this regard.
Gao Shen had a strong premonition. On one hand, it was a World Cup year. On the other, if Barcelona appealed and obtained a delay in execution, they would surely go on a spending spree this summer.
In that case, it would be better to hit them harder and make them bleed more this summer.
(To be continued.)
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