Godfather Of Champions

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

"It's common to see a player being sent off with a red card for contradicting the referee, but it's not every day you can see a manager fighting nonstop with the referee and the fourth official on the sidelines and finally being sent off with a red card. Last night, Tony Twain played out such a passionate scene for us at Camp Nou…"

As the television footage switched, the recording of last night's final moments of the match between Barcelona and Nottingham Forest emerged onscreen. In the image, Tony Twain had one hand on the hip and a finger pointed at the referee while he jabbered nonstop. He looked agitated as if he wanted to throw a punch at the other man.

When the referee pulled out a red card to send him off, he walked to the entrance of the tunnel and made a money-counting action. This completely infuriated the Barcelona fans at the stadium, and it could be seen clearly in the imagery that lighters, coins and other debris came raining down.

At the post-match press conference, when Twain reappeared in front of the reporters, the Catalan reporters even directed hisses of displeasure at him. Twain turned a deaf ear to this. He sat down and initiated to speak about two things:

"Firstly, the referee is Italian; secondly, we will be promoted."

Having said those two remarks, he got up and walked away without even shaking hands with Guardiola. It was clear that he was still indignant and unable to calm down.

The television presenter commented, "He still seems to think he has not done enough to stir things up. He has added fuel to the fire again. I'm sure the UEFA definitely won't let him go this time."

In fact, Twain was reprimanded in person by Allan Adams before the UEFA came knocking.

Allan Adams and Evan Doughty came to Barcelona together. They had wanted to watch a great game in the box at Camp Nou. But they did not expect to see such a scene …

By the end of the game, when Twain returned to the locker room after the press conference, the players had already left. The men waiting for him in the locker room was the club chairman and marketing manager.

"Tony, you'd better explain it to us." Allan suppressed his anger and glared at Twain, while Evan remained silent beside him.

"There's nothing to explain. You saw it."

"It's still normal to be sent off with a red card … But what did you mean by that action after? Are you accusing Barcelona of bribing the referee? Do you have any proof?"

"I just snapped my fingers." Twain shrugged.

"You can tell this nonsense to the officials at the UEFA disciplinary committee!" Allan was so infuriated by Twain's indifferent attitude and explanation that he wanted to smash something. He said, "You're the manager of Nottingham Forest and you're in the public eye all the time. In a sense, you are more like the symbol and representative of this club than Evan. You can't express your emotions so recklessly. You represent the image of Nottingham Forest! Your actions caused us to offend almost all of our friends in the circle!"

Twain looked at the angry Allan and said nothing. But his eyes and expressions unmistakably told the other party that he was not willing to back down.

"All right, Allan." At this time Evan stepped forward as the chairman and friend to smooth things over and slightly ease the tense atmosphere. He said, "I'm sure Tony must have been dizzy with anger at the time. To be honest, there was no problem with our goal, I've watched the replay. The commentator also talked about the issue after. But neither the result of the game nor the penalty could be changed. You're not the manager and in that position, so you'll never know how much psychological pressure is on them."

Having said that, he walked up to Twain and lightly patted him on the shoulder.

"Tony, you're in big trouble this time. The club can't absolve you of your actions. You have to deal with it yourself."

Although he always did not see eye to eye with Allan, Twain still did what he was told in the face of Evan. He nodded and softened his stance by a lot. He said, "I'm sorry, Evan. I was too agitated…"

Hearing him say so, Allan gave him a hard look. Why didn't you say that when you were facing me?

"There's no problem with your heart, is there?" Evan pointed to Twain's left chest area.

Twain shook his head and said, "Everything is fine."

"You'd better call Shania. If she's watching the game, she'll be freaked out by your last five minutes of excited performance. Did you turn off your phone?"

The moment he said so, Twain remembered the matter. He did switched off his cell phone, but Shania was far away in the United States. It was hard to say whether she would be watching the game.

"Well, Allan. Let's go first." Evan intended to give Twain some alone time and space.

Before Allan left, he did not forget to point at Twain and warned him, "You'd better be prepared, Tony. This time, this is not something that can be solved by paying a fine of a few thousand pounds."

Twain ignored him.

After everyone had left, he pulled out his cell phone and turned it on. Then he dialed Shania's cell phone number.

"Tony!" It was rare for Shania not to call him "Uncle Tony." She sounded angry from her tone.

"Looks like you watched the game, Shania?" Twain twisted his lips and smiled somewhat helplessly.

"Of course, I did. Were you trying to scare me? What was going on in those minutes?"

"Well, we were treated unfairly, and I'm a little angry…"

"I don't care about that, Tony! I don't care about the matters in football. Why did I watch the game? I only care about you. Seeing you lose your temper there; do you know how worried I am about your heart?"

"… I'm sorry, Shania. I'm sorry…" Twain was unable to put forward any convincing argument at this time, so he could only apologize.

"When will you get rid of your bad temper, Tony?" Although she was younger than Twain, Shania currently used the tone of an elder to chide her husband. She said, "You're always so easily agitated. One remark from another person and you will be all fired up. You're already in your forties, Tony. Why are you still acting like a child?"

"Well, my temper is a lot better now….." Twain recalled in his mind that before his transmigration, he was simply quite loathsome and never give face to others, like a stone in a latrine, smelly and hard. "It's just that there are times when I really can't control everything on my own. You know, Shania, sometimes it's not of my own volition…"

"All right, Uncle Tony!" Shania interrupted Twain's explanation, "As long as you're okay. Sometimes I really don't know what to say to you. You're always so stubborn… Perhaps you have to give up this career completely to give me a peace of mind. But I also know you will never do so. So, what else can I say?"

Shania's tone was much softer, and she also called Twain "Uncle Tony" again. But Twain still felt a little guilty. Sometimes he momentarily gave free rein to his emotions but alarmed Shania. He did not care how the UEFA punished himself, how the rival fans would love to kill him, how the media condemned him in speech and writing, and Allan's rebukes to his face, but he had to care about Shania. Because, like what a Canadian country singer with the same name as Shania, sang—"You're Still the One."

"I'm sorry Shania. I promise I'll try to be restrained in the future. I'll think of you when I want to lose my temper. Ah —just the thought of you calms my emotions…"

"You're so corny, Uncle Tony!" Shania laughed at the other end of the line.

When he heard Shania laugh, Twain also laughed along. His heart finally settled, because Shania was not angry with him.

After he ended the phone conversation with Shania, Twain walked out of the locker room. Some media still blocked him on the way to the bus, trying to get him say more explosive content. But Twain shook his head and stayed silent on any questions. He had already said what he wanted to say and also said what should have not been said. He too had done what he should and should not do. Now he would just have to deal with how people were going to evaluate the matter, how the UEFA would punish him, and what trouble he was going to face. It was no use talking about it.

※※※

The UEFA acted swiftly. Just as Twain and his team had stepped off the plane and re-entered England, the initial penalty was already out.

Tony Twain was suspended for two additional games on top of the ban of two games from the red card and fined fifty thousand pounds for contradicting the referee, verbally abusing the fourth official and making an insulting gesture to provoke the Barcelona fans. Furthermore, the matter was not over yet. The UEFA would call for a hearing at a later date to bring Twain in to question him on what his actions and words on the sidelines meant, and whether there was any evidence to prove that the referee had accepted a bribe from Barcelona. If he did not produce the evidence, he could face a far more serious punishment.

But since the UEFA was a big bureaucratic organization, it might take a long time for a specific hearing to be held. Twain still had time to prepare…

Twain certainly would not resigned to his fate. He told reporters at the airport during the interview, claiming that his action was not counting money, but a snapping of his fingers—these two actions really looked very similar …

The important thing was that Twain did not put his thumb on his index finger and middle finger to rub them back and forth. If that was the case, it would be "counting money" without a doubt. But Twain only rubbed his fingers a little. Snapping his fingers required only a bit of rubbing.

In addition, Twain also had prepared other materials for his counterattack. He insisted that Nottingham Forest had been treated unfairly at Camp Nou. The Catalan media had criticized his team for being rough and the lethal tactics against Messi were contrary to sportsmanship. Twain snorted at it, "If I really want to deal with Messi using that kind of means, I can guarantee that he won't last on the pitch for five minutes."

A reporter asked Twain that it should be true that Nottingham Forest had a lot of yellow cards. Twain asked in return, "In Derbi barceloní, both teams, Barcelona and RCD Espanyol had a lot of yellow cards. What did that imply?"

Twain also continued to attack the referee and assistant referee at the airport. He said anyone who watched Nottingham Forest's second goal replay would admit this point—Fernández's goal was fine and not in an offside position. Ibišević might have been in an offside position, but he was not actually involved in the offensive or interfering with the defense. It made no sense to rule the goal invalid and immediately allow the other side to quickly kickoff until there was a goal. He was not afraid of even going to the UEFA hearing. If the UEFA did not give him an explanation, he would even go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. In short—if you want to fight me, I will fight with you to the end!

Twain's attitude was tough, and Barcelona was not soft, either. In a post-match interview, Guardiola mentioned the controversial goal. First of all, this was what he said about Nottingham Forest's goal being invalidated, "I'm not a referee and I was not near that part of the sidelines, so I did not know what happened. But I think if both the referee and the assistant referee thought it was in an offside position, then it was definitely in an offside position."

Then he talked about his team's goal, "There was no problem with our goal. It was absolutely not against the rules. The referee signaled for the game to continue, so we kickoff the attack. I don't think there's any reason for us to stop and wait for the other team to return to its defensive positions to start attacking. As long as we did not break the rules, it was fine." Anyway, he pushed the problem to the rules and the referee. If there was any problem, it laid with the referee. We were only following the referee's instructions…

Following which, he was asked about his opinion on Tony Twain's strings of actions. He said, "I could understand how he felt at the time. Of course, there are times when there are surprises on the football field. But regardless, he should respect the referee. He's a role model for the players… What did he say? I'm sorry it is so noisy here; I can't hear you. What about his gesture? I don't know what that meant. Maybe only he knows… I didn't see it either. I only saw it on the news after someone told me about it. I don't care what his gesture meant."

Finally, he responded to the media reports of "Barcelona had bribed the referee" and said, "This is complete nonsense! How can Barcelona, a powerhouse club which enjoys immense prestige all over the world, do such a thing? We have the strength to win any game and don't need anyone's help. I didn't hear Twain say we bribed the referee. If he did say that, the Barcelona club will definitely make a complain to the UEFA. He must give us a reasonable explanation." He did not forget to show his rarely displayed sense of humor. He said, "It would be more effective to use that money to pay our players a winning bonus than to bribe the referees. Ha."

The Barcelona Football Club also stated they would pursue this matter with Twain to the end. They would definitely appeal to the UEFA for the insults they had been subjected to.

Unlike Barcelona's unyielding stance, Nottingham Forest was a bit ambiguous. They simply stated that they would gather evidence for the "offside goal" in the game to report to the UEFA. They refused to acknowledge all the other personal complaints about Twain and Barcelona.

Any mess that Tony Twain had made, he had to clean it up himself.