In 1924, there were two major sports events around the world, one was the Summer Olympics held in Paris, France, and the other was the Football King's Cup held every four years in Sydney, Australasia.
Although the history of the Olympic Games goes far beyond the Football King's Cup, it has been hosted by powerful countries such as the United Kingdom, France, and Australia. Each edition attracts dozens of countries to participate, and more than 2,000 athletes compete in the games.
But from the perspective of popularity and bonuses, the current Football King's Cup is not inferior to the Olympic Games, and even slightly exceeds it in terms of attention.
This is no joke. The first Football King's Cup in 1920 cost more than 3.78 million Australian dollars, and the tournament prize money was as high as about 500,000 Australian dollars.
Excluding the cost of hosting and event prize money, at least 2.5 million Australian dollars were spent on publicity. This is why the Football King's Cup can quickly become a world-renowned sports event.
Especially in Australasia, the winner of the Football King's Cup can be received by Arthur. This is a fatal temptation for the Australasian Football Association and cannot be refused for those Australasian football players. award.
In order to ensure that the Football King's Cup is attractive to all countries, the first King's Cup was held without any favoritism and was basically fair and just.
However, European countries and major powers currently have the advantage in sports events. After all, only the people in these countries have enough funds to engage in sports.
Most sports events are not accessible to the public if they are interested. Basketball requires a basketball court, football requires a football field, and even running requires corresponding professional training facilities, even just a pair of ordinary sports shoes.
In particular, participating in the Football King's Cup requires a formal national football association. The political situation in some small and medium-sized countries is unstable, and it is naturally impossible to form an official football association.
This also resulted in only 22 countries signing up for the first Football King's Cup. The Australasian football team ultimately won the championship without any favoritism.
After all, Australasia is a local battle, which saves time spent on the road. In addition, since the Olympic Games was held in Sydney, the country has attached great importance to sports. Every year, it invests a portion of funds to subsidize various athletes and build corresponding sports facilities and venues to improve the training level of Australasian football players. Climbing steadily.
Because of the experience of later generations, Arthur knew one thing very well, that is, before asking people to achieve results in a certain aspect, a corresponding stable development environment must be created for them.
If Australasia is to achieve success in football, the establishment of football fields and corresponding training facilities has given the public enough time to watch sports events and cultivate their interest in sports. This is the most crucial thing.
Fortunately, the people of Australasia still have a certain amount of spare time, which has also laid a certain foundation for the vigorous development of the Australasian sports industry.
Coupled with the current rating and registration of athletes by various sports associations and sports departments, athletes who are registered and recognized by the country can receive high subsidies from the country, turning athletes into a substantive job in exchange for more People attach great importance to sports events.
Even amateur athletes who are not officially registered can receive official subsidies as long as they achieve certain results in a certain event or make certain contributions to sports events.
This year's second Football King's Cup is not much different from the previous one in terms of competition format. After all, there are only so many countries that can participate in sports events during this period.
It’s still the old rule, registration is due in May this year, and June to July is the collective training period.
The qualifiers will start from the end of August to the beginning of September, followed by the group stage and knockout rounds, and the real champion will be competed in October.
This kind of time conflicts with the Olympic Games, but fortunately the Olympic Games will open in May. By the time the King's Cup is officially held, the Summer Olympics will be coming to an end.
This year's Olympic Games will be held in Paris, France, and for the first time the Olympic motto "Faster, Higher, Stronger" will be introduced.
As an Olympic Games held by one of the major powers, the Paris Olympics attracted more eyes and attention than Antwerp. Together with the Australasian Football King's Cup, they are known as the two major sports events that changed the world.
Of course, a big factor in this is Australasia's publicity spending. If it were not for the huge investment in publicity, the Football King's Cup would not be able to compare with the Olympic Games in a short period of time, even if the Olympic Games have only been held eight times so far.
As time comes to May 1924, in addition to the Olympic Games in Paris, France, Europe is also about to usher in the coronation ceremony of three new monarchs.
Arthur still attached great importance to his only brother-in-law, Dmitry, and decided to attend his coronation ceremony in person.
Finland is the most powerful of the three newly established monarchies, and Australasia's ability to control Finland can be regarded as taking advantage of the British and French resistance.
But Arthur didn't feel embarrassed at all. Not only did he decide to attend Dmitry's coronation ceremony in person, he would also bring Queen Mary and a few little ones with him.
Dmitry's coronation is scheduled for June 19, which also means that Arthur needs to arrive in Finland before at least mid-June to prepare.
Fortunately, the fastest warship in Australasia currently only takes about a month to travel to Finland, and it only takes just over 20 days to travel to France and Spain.
It just so happened that Arthur also planned to take the opportunity of attending Dmitry's coronation ceremony to pay another diplomatic visit to some European countries after many years.
I remember that the last time I went to Europe was during the funeral of Edward VII. At that time, Germany was still the second largest power in the world, but now things have changed.
Australasia used to be a pseudo-power that needed the help of other countries to maintain its status as a great power. Now it is one of the most powerful countries in the world.
Although it is not yet strong enough to compete for world hegemony, it is still no problem to compete for the third place in the world after Britain and the United States.
Australasia's competitors are France and island countries. France's industrial strength has been damaged, and its industry is no longer as good as Australasia's.
The land area of the island country is naturally limited. This country may be able to secure the throne of the great powers, but it is still too difficult to become a top power.
On June 14, 1924, the Arthur family successfully arrived in Helsinki, Finland, and received a warm welcome from the Finnish government and Archduke Dmitry.
The welcoming team waited at the port of Helsinki for more than two hours. After Arthur and his party arrived at the port, Dmitri immediately rushed forward and looked at his sister and brother-in-law very respectfully.
"Dmitri, how do you feel in Finland?" Arthur asked with a smile.
"It's as cold as Russia, but the Finns are much more enthusiastic than I thought." Dmitri said very gratefully: "Thanks to the weapons and equipment you gave me, the training progress of the Grand Duke's Guard is already over halfway. The situation in Finland It’s settled down.”
"Dmitri, you have lost weight from hunger!" Queen Mary held the two little guys by the hand and looked at her brother with some distress.
"Finland's financial situation is not good. As the Grand Duke of Finland, I should naturally take the initiative to reduce living expenses." Dmitri explained with a smile: "But it's okay. I like life here and I also like this kind and lovely group of people." Finnish.”
After a few people exchanged pleasantries, Nicholas John Fitzgerald, the interim prime minister of the Finnish government, came up very respectfully and said to Arthur and Queen Mary: "Your Majesty Arthur, Your Royal Highness Queen Mary, Welcome to Finland!”
Arthur nodded calmly in response to Nicholas' greetings.
Arthur didn't have much favorable impression of such a profit-minded politician. Moreover, Nicholas is the first politician from a small country to dare to propose conditions to Australasia, so Arthur will naturally not have any good impressions of him.
If it weren't for Dmitri's status and reputation in Finland, and as a test for Dmitri, Arthur would have asked the Australasian government to purge Finland.
Under the control of a powerful country, a small country cannot guarantee independence in the fundamental sense.
Especially when the three countries of Britain, France and Australia have agreed, the political situation in Finland is nothing more than Arthur's words.
But now we have entered the 1920s. Compared with the rights of the monarch, the stability and spread of the monarchy are more important.
Although with Arthur's help, Dmitri might be able to gain absolute power in Finland. But this right may not be sustainable, let alone be inherited by the next Grand Duke of Finland.
Rather than looking forward to the consolidation of the power of the Finnish monarchy, it is better to look forward to the continuation of the Finnish monarchy in Finland.
At least during the reign of Dmitry and his children, that is, in the next few decades, the relationship between Finland and Australasia can still be guaranteed.
Arthur rejected the invitation of Prime Minister Nicholas and came to the Palace of the Grand Duke of Finland with Dmitri.
The history of the Grand Duchy of Finland can be traced back hundreds of years. Although it is equivalent to a subordinate state of Tsarist Russia, it still has its own independent government and Grand Duke's Palace, although the Grand Duke's Palace will not be occupied by a ruler all year round.
Dmitri did not fight for power when he came to Finland, nor did he propose any plans to improve and expand the palace. This made the Finnish people at least not disgusted with Dmitri.
In addition, the arrival of Dmitri brought further cooperation between Finland and Australasia, and Finland received assistance from Australasia, including a certain industrial base and power equipment.
Although these changes have not made much difference to the lives of the Finnish people, some of the infrastructure projects assisted by Australasia have begun to recruit workers. Finns have more job opportunities, and this gratitude has naturally transferred to Dmitry.
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(End of chapter)
