2. Cash To Burn
Quezaldad district, in the sprawling city of Tapalupé: A huge demolition & building site, 2.5 square kilometres of prime football development location including the brand new national stadium. Forty pitches of various sizes and surfaces, high-tech training facilities, a sports science centre, a coach academy, hotels, sports-themed shopping, rehab centres… this is the modernisation of football in Tequilo with a masterplan to dominate multiversal football. But who is funding this masterplan? Who is the mastermind behind the masterplan? What will happen when the masterplan is accomplished? What about all the people living in Quezaldad’s 2.5 square kilometres of rubble - where are they now and what do they think? Speaking of rubble, what about the rumours about… things… unearthed during the demolition phase? So many questions, so little time - in this episode (because this is an episodic piece) we look at the funders behind the new Liga-TQ, the new national team initiatives, the City of Football, the national stadium… and ask ourselves - are we dealing with the devil(s) here?
CASH TO BURN
It’s an old saying in Tequilo - understand the sequence of the resplendent jackdaw in flight, and you will come to anticipate the order of movements that divine the hiding place of the secret and elusive rattleworm. Often that is abbreviated to the more pragmatic but less whimsical ‘follow the money’.
Who is funding Señor Lepe’s grand scheme to dominate world football, and why? Answer the first part of that question, and you can pretty quickly surmise the latter. It may surprise, and it may come to worry you, when you know. But you need to know, if you are a good honest Tequiloan with a healthy distrust of the mischievous spirits of Confusiónism. Uncanny business is afoot. At first glance, you may not think so. You’ll be saying, it’s this huge broadcast TV deal, right? Yes. It is partly that - Satélite Boldsport, a foreign media company with preposterously deep pockets, has paid enough money down to invest heavily in the modern commercial enterprise of Liga-TQ, and the rest will follow off the back of that. But wait, Satélite who? Isn’t that name familiar? Boldsport? And no, it’s not another Havynwilde duplication service. Boldsport is the money that funded Bonesea’s rise to (almost) the top of world football. Ok, so that’s no big deal for a big deal is it? Media corporation funds football league?
Well - then there is the contract to build the City of Football. That went to Heavy Products, and they are based in Taxhavn. Which used to be in Rushmore, a hundred years ago, until the nation was forcibly exiled during one of those dubious Maxtopian Z-Day apocalyptic crashes. That happened about the same time as the poor residents of The Septen Islands were forcibly removed from Ao during the same multiversal crisis. And Banque Sept-Nat, which is the principal financial partner in the construction, was of course founded as the national bank of the Septen Islands, with it’s central reserve held in Taxhavn. Then there was a third forced ethnic cleansing during the Z-Day land grab: the Wightlings, forced from Ao along with their Septen neighbours and sent to the Rejected Realms. It was the Wightlings who rose to power in world football funded by their mysterious Oroboros Cooperative, a syndicate of murky finances that had previously been linked to both the rise and fall of our near neighbours and good friends in Tamarindia - a nation that also started to look like it might become a power until… The Fall. Sponsored, allegedly, by the Oroboros Cooperative. And when Wight fell, and Taxhavn, and Bonesea, like dominoes - the OC was there, and remains there.
The Oroboros Cooperative - a shadowy Wightling syndicate funding power surges, collapses and restorations since way back when, and - get this - the majority stakeholders in a wide range of syndicates including, amongst others, Boldsport, Heavy Products, Banque Sept-Nat, and Grupo Taxhavn. At the bottom of all this cash to burn, is a dark, dangerous wight with a match and a can of chlorine trifluoride, The Oroboros Cooperative. What are they up to? Who can understand the Wightling Agenda? But whatever it is, nations that take the Oroboros doubloon tend not to last long enough to find out. Will Tequilo be next to suffer a Catastrophic Termination Event?
In the next episode - we love Señor Lepe, and El Cháman Pablo Invocador - they want great things for our national game. But who is the real power behind these grand designs… who exactly is Dik ten Beuenk, the ‘football genius’ who came out of nowhere - well, Mustardy - and suddenly has unveiled a strategy that the UPT seems to have mortgaged it’s soul for?
TAPALUPÉ, Tequilo - So much football, so little time… don’t worry, when you don’t have time for the big read (and we don’t have time for the big write) let the GOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL-a!!! Daily take the strain - all your analysis, in numbers, with our unique and exclusive Copametro…
MEDAL PINS ONE ON STUNNED FORMER CHAMPION
HUElavia 0-1 Tequilo HT: 0-0
Location: Stadium of the Occident, Westhaven, West Calaverde
Attendance: 47,991 locals & Huelavios, with the Tequiloan Ultra-Mariachis (8 sombreros+dog)
Scorers: Medal 90+1’
Booked: Fernandez, Amaru, Hamada | Bertendona, Caira
Tequilo Player Ratings: Fiallo [8.1] Bertendona [8.3] (sub: Cañaverri [7.2]) Kanyinda [8.8] Chicote [7.0] Caira [9.7] (sub: Morterero [7.7]) Alemán [8.5] (sub: Vergara [9.0]) Medal [8.2] Lucio [8.0] Vale [7.7] Ecuador [9.7] Colon [9.0]
Player of the Match: Camilo Caira (Tequilo)
A hard-working defensive display against the former champions of the Independent Associations earned a massive reward for the Agave-Blues in West Calaverde on Tuesday, with a deadly counter at the end of the match giving Martín Colon a strike at goal, parried by keeper Ana Vallares and finished by captain fantastic Xaime Medal, keeping his head to win the game with virtually the last kick of the match. The win puts Tequilo in the driving seat with one more win needed to secure a passage to the next phase.
For the coming potential decider against Natanya, where a win will put Tequilo into the knockout round, first choice keeper Tepin Mecatl-Rubio returns between the sticks, while Enzo Morterero replaces injured centre-back Camilo Caira who faces missing the rest of the tournament. Coach Luca Entenza rests Tomás Aléman, Milan Lucio and captain Xaime Medal from the midfield, shuffling his pack with Noah Vergara, Xecotcovach and Cio Çenturion as replacements; while up front Ito also returns in place of Firmino Vale. The highly impressive Ecuador wins the captain’s armband in Medal’s place for this match.
Starting Line-Up for TEQUILO vs. Natanya:
Tepin Mecatl-Rubio | Ostando Bertendona, Ephraïm Kanyinda, Tol Chicote, Enzo Morterero | Noah Vergara | Cio Çenturion , Xecotcovach, Martín Colon | Ito & Ecuador (Capitan)
Vevnue: Stadium of the Occident, Westhaven, Republic of West Calaverde