Last night, the Champions League quarter-final draw ceremony had a bizarre oolong incident, and the first draw result was cancelled and re-drawn
Software glitches plus "man-made disasters"
The first draw ceremony began at 19:00 and was completed in more than 20 minutes, with the result of the draw: Benfica vs Real Madrid, Villarreal vs Manchester City, Atletico Madrid vs Bayern Munich, Salzburg vs Liverpool, Inter Milan vs Ajax, Portugal Sports vs Juventus, Chelsea vs Lille, Paris Saint-Germain vs Manchester United.
The most striking of these is undoubtedly the "Greater Paris" vs. Manchester United, the "enemy of a lifetime" Messi and C Ronaldo once again narrowly met. They are not only superstars, but also traffic stars, and fans cheer for them.
However, UEFA then issued a notice to negate the results of the draw, which was the first time in the history of the Champions League draw. UEFA said: "Due to technical problems with the external service provider's software, the software alerted officials to the possibility of a wrong match match, which eventually led to a major error in the Champions League 1/8 final draw. The result of the draw was declared invalid and will be re-drawn at 15:00 CET (22:00 Beijing time). ”
In fact, the draw process is not complicated: UEFA Deputy Secretary-General Marchetti, UEFA Club Competitions Head Herschweed and Ambassador Arshavin of this season's Champions League finale participate in the draw, and there are 10 draw glass bowls on the stage. Marchetti has a glass bowl in front of him, where the balls from the second-placed draw in the 8 Champions League groups are placed. An empty glass bowl is placed in front of Arshavin, and in front of Herschweed are placed 8 glass bowls representing the first place in the Champions League group, each with 8 equal draw balls.
Whenever Marchetti drew a group number two, Herschweed would pick out a draw ball that met the rules of the match according to the software prompts on the big screen and put it in the empty bowl in front of Arshavin, who drew a group first. Teams in the same league will not meet, teams in the same group will not meet, which is the principle of draw avoidance for many years in the Champions League quarter-finals. After each set of duels, the balls in the draw bowl in front of Arshavin were emptied.
The first team Marchetti drew was Benfica, Herschweid picked out seven small balls except Bayern Munich (opponents in the same group) into the empty bowl and Arshavin pulled out Real Madrid. The problem was in the second set of matches, with Marchetti pulling out Villarreal, Herschweed putting a small ball from a possible opponent into an empty bowl and Alshavin pulling out Manchester United. This is obviously impossible, as Villarreal and Manchester United are in the same group and Marchetti said on the spot that it was impossible to draw Manchester United. When the software prompted an error, Herschweed followed the error prompt and put in a Manchester United goal that should not have been put in. Arshavin then drew another small ball, which ended up at Manchester City, and he laughed awkwardly and said: "Another Manchester team." ”
Herschweed, known for his rigor and head of the UEFA club's competition department, was supposed to be familiar with the rules of the draw, but turned out to be a "robot" that copied the software prompts, which was very undeserved. It is also possible that the German rigor caused Herschweed to refuse to disobey the software's prompts.
The third set of duels was also problematic, with Marchetti drawing at Atletico. Herschweed once again followed the wrong software cue when placing the ball and put in a small ball that should not have been put in atletico's opponent Liverpool, but did not put a small ball into Manchester United. Arshavin drew Bayern for Atletico, but the draw process was irregular. The first draw was thus completed in chaos, and it was perfectly reasonable that the result of the draw would be invalidated.
Miss the "lottery brother" Infantino
The Champions League draw has never been wrong during the reign of UEFA Secretary-General Infantino, who has also been nicknamed "Brother Draw" by fans. Since Infantino's election as FIFA president in February 2016, the Champions League draw has always felt less smooth.
Infantino was quick-witted and eloquent, and introduced the rules of the draw very clearly. He was responsible for drawing champions league group number two; Marchetti was then head of UEFA's competition department, responsible for placing champions league group number one in line with the rules for champions league finalists. Infantino and Marchetti cooperate tacitly, Marchetti does not need to talk much, and under Infantino's guidance, Marchetti has never made a mistake in placing the ball.
After Infantino's elevation to FIFA president, Marchetti became UEFA Deputy Secretary-General. The new UEFA Secretary-General Theodoritis seems to be less interested in the draw, and the Champions League draw combination becomes Marchetti, UEFA Club Competitions Director Herschweed and Champions League final ambassadors. Compared to Infantino, Marchetti is much inferior in thinking, eloquence and reflexes, and has made multiple slips of speech when introducing the first group that each group may face second, as was the case in two draws last night.
For this bizarre lottery oolong incident, there was a great response from all walks of life. As the club with the most Champions League titles, Real Madrid do not believe that the mistake in the draw is a software problem, and are very angry at UEFA's decision to re-draw. Real Madrid made a deal with UEFA that the result of real Madrid's draw with Benfica should not be changed, because it was the first set of duels drawn, and the software prompts and the draw process at that time were not wrong.
However, UEFA finally decided to re-draw all the lots, and Real Madrid changed from the upper to the lower draws, drawing Paris Saint-Germain led by the old rival Messi. "Greater Paris" is not only the strongest team in the second group, but also one of the favourites to win the Champions League.
(Source: Yangcheng Evening News)