After Paris Saint-Germain was removed from the list, I led England to victory!

The next morning, in the conference room of the administration building at the Kearney training ground, all the club's bigwigs were present.

Because the club's top cash cow has been subjected to extreme defamation.

On a larger scale, this relates to Arsenal's parent company's revenue generation capabilities.

Yan Yuan is now the star player of Arsenal and its parent company. He is about to win the Ballon d'Or, and the parent company's annual revenue is about to reach a new high.

Then this happened.

After this incident, even Arsenal club director Stan Kroenke, who was on vacation in the United States, made a special trip to London.

He wanted to see who had the audacity to do that.

Also seated around the conference table were CEO Vinay Venkatsan, sports director Edu Gaspar, and Yan Yuan's father and agent, Yan Zhen'an.

Several open laptops and thick folders were on the table.

"Venet, Edu, Mr. Kroenke, this is the situation." Father Yan's face was grim as he pushed the printed copy of the "Global Gossip" report towards them.

"This is clearly aimed at Yan Yuan, and the timing is terrible, right during the crucial period of the Golden Globe Awards voting. I think we need to fight back immediately and decisively!"

Kroenke quickly scanned the report, his brow furrowed.

"Without a doubt, Mr. Yan is right. This was a malicious and targeted attack."

Yan Yuan is not only our player, but also the flag and future of the club and the England national team. His image is closely related to the club's reputation.

Moreover, this is a crucial period for Yan Yuan's bid for the Ballon d'Or, and we cannot allow him to be distracted by this; we must clear his name as soon as possible.

Venkatshan nodded in agreement, his tone firm.

"Yes, gentlemen, I have put the club's legal department on standby at the highest level."

We need the most professional legal and technical support, not only to clarify the facts, but also to bring the masterminds behind it all to justice and make them pay the price!

Yan's father nodded in satisfaction, and then said.

"Not only that, I also have capable people on my side."

I have contacted my private legal team, led by David Selwyn, who is a top expert in international and privacy law, particularly in transnational defamation and digital evidence. They will be working in conjunction with the club's legal team.

David is the new lawyer on Yan Ba's team. He was recommended by one of Yan Ba's long-time clients, and he is very professional.

"Okay, the basic framework is set," Venkatshan immediately approved.

"Without delay, we will establish a joint investigation team. Led by Attorney Selwyn, with the club's full cooperation and unlimited resources! Objectives: First, to thoroughly prove that the video is fake; second, to determine the source and dissemination path of the video; third, to uncover the mastermind behind it!"

Less than two hours after the meeting ended.

A joint team led by lawyer Selwyn, including Yan's private legal team and Arsenal's legal elite.

They have already driven to the five-star hotel on the outskirts of London where the England team once stayed.

……

The hotel manager was a middle-aged British man with neatly combed hair and wearing a sharp suit.

He clearly had a premonition about the purpose of this group of uninvited guests in suits and ties with serious expressions.

In order not to affect the hotel's business, he invited the investigation team into a private executive conference room.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen. How can I help you?" The manager maintained a professional smile, but there was a hint of nervousness in his eyes.

Without any pleasantries, Selwyn's lawyer presented official legal documents and a letter from Arsenal Football Club bearing their official seal, his tone calm yet authoritative.

"Mr. Manager, we are the joint legal team representing Arsenal Football Club and player Yan Yuan."

Regarding a video circulating online recently involving my client, which was filmed at your hotel, we request that, in accordance with relevant laws and regulations,

We retrieved the original, unedited CCTV footage from the 6th-floor corridor of the hotel (Yan Yuan's floor) on the evening of September 14, 2019.

The manager took the document, a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead.

"Um... sir, there's the issue of guest privacy and our hotel's surveillance data..."

"Manager," Selwin interrupted him, his voice still steady, but the pressure had increased sharply.

"We understand the hotel's rules and regulations. However, this maliciously altered video has caused extremely serious damage to my client's reputation and constitutes suspected criminal defamation."

We have ample reason and legal documentation to request evidence.

If your hotel refuses to cooperate, we will have no choice but to apply for a court injunction and... reserve the right to pursue legal action against the hotel for negligence that led to the violation of guest privacy.

He specifically emphasized the phrases "management oversight" and "accountability".

The manager's expression changed slightly, and he whispered a conversation with the hotel's legal advisor beside him.

In the end, he compromised.

"Alright, gentlemen, please come with me to the monitoring room. We will provide you with the complete video footage you requested."

Because this happened less than a month ago.

Therefore, this video has not been automatically deleted yet.

Modern surveillance videos are stored for at least one month.

A large hotel like this would be kept for at least two months.

In the monitoring room, technicians retrieved several hours of original surveillance video from that night.

The investigation team's requirements were extremely detailed:

"We need the original file at the highest resolution, not any compressed or transcoded version."

Please provide complete metadata for the video file, especially the unmodifiable creation time and modification timestamp.

"We need to check whether the timecode within the video stream is continuous and whether there are any interruptions or jumps."

Arsenal's investigation team was quite professional.

The hotel technicians were operating the equipment under the supervision of lawyer Selwyn.

After a preliminary fast-forward, the investigation team quickly located the key segments:

In the original, complete video, the two women did appear in the corridor, but they came out of a room at the other end of the corridor and walked towards the elevator. They never approached Yan Yuan's room door!

The video circulating online was maliciously edited and spliced ​​together, combining footage of a woman emerging from a distant room with a separate static or dynamic shot of Yan Yuan's room number, creating a false temporal and spatial connection!

"Just as I thought!" a club legal representative whispered.

"And the timestamps don't match either," the tech expert pointed to the metadata.

"The woman appeared in the corridor at 10:17 PM, while according to the team's schedule, Mr. Yan Yuan returned to his room around 12:40 AM after attending the tactical meeting, a difference of more than two hours!"

Selwyn, the lawyer, turned to the hotel manager.

"Mr. Manager, now we need the hotel to provide an official, legally valid certificate."

Please confirm the authenticity, integrity, and tamper-proof nature of the original surveillance video we just reviewed, and clearly mark the key time points.

Under intense legal pressure, the hotel manager had no choice but to comply.

With this crucial evidence obtained, the investigation team successfully completed the first phase of its mission.

at the same time.

Meanwhile, Yan's father has quietly moved into the security office provided by Arsenal Football Club, having hired a top-notch team of Russian cybersecurity and digital forensics experts at great expense.

Russia's network technology is known worldwide.

Their work is more complex and covert:

The team was very professional; they first traced the source of the news.

We analyzed the backend data of the webpage where "Global Gossip" first published the video (obtained through some special channels) and identified the IP address that was initially uploaded.

The IP address was found to point to a public server node located in Eastern Europe.

Furthermore, they continued to track the server's logs and eventually discovered the original IP address that connected to the VPN, which was geolocated to the Barcelona region of Spain.

Next, the team analyzed the video itself, performing pixel-level in-depth identification and analysis on the video circulating online.

Then there's the analysis of light and shadow consistency.

Russian experts have made a new discovery.

The angle and length of the shadow cast by the woman in the video are slightly but detectably inconsistent with the position of the corridor ceiling light and the known light source data for that night.

This strongly suggests that the image was composited in post-production.

Furthermore, extremely faint traces of compression algorithms, not belonging to the original surveillance camera model, were found in certain frames of the video, which is irrefutable evidence that the video has been edited.

Next comes the most important part.

This is also one of the team's specialties.

Tracking financial chains.

Through special financial investigation channels, the team tracked down the events to about a week before the scandal broke.

A sum of 15 euros was transferred from an anonymous shell company registered in the Cayman Islands to a secret Swiss bank account belonging to the deputy editor in charge of the sports section of the Global Gossip website.

Further investigation is needed into the recent flow of funds of this shell company.

Several unexplained financial transactions were discovered between the company and a sports agency in Catalonia with close ties to the Barcelona club's management.

Although it cannot be directly proven that defamation fees were paid, the timing and relevance are highly suggestive.

The Russian team was very efficient, completing all the evidence collection and investigation work within two days.

Old Yan was surprised by their efficiency and gave them an extra 50 euros.

On the other hand, with the "cooperation" of the hotel management, some members of Arsenal's investigation team secretly questioned the staff on duty that night under the guise of an "internal security audit."

The receptionist said,

There are no records of any non-hotel guests visiting that floor that night, especially two women with such "controversial" appearances.

Moreover, according to the security personnel, everything was normal that night, and no unusual entry or exit or suspicious persons were found.

When asked if they had seen anything unusual, the room service staff all said they had no recollection of it.

These are the results of the inquiry.

This indirectly confirms the video's falsity.

If such a remarkable visitor were present, it's impossible for the hotel staff to be completely unaware of it.

The truth has basically come to light.

Four days later, all the investigation results were gathered in the highest-security conference room at Kearney Air Force Base.

Yan's father, Venkatshan, Edu, Kroenke, and the core investigation team reunited.

Attorney Selwyn, acting as the representative, clearly presented the complete chain of evidence using a PowerPoint presentation:

1. Ironclad evidence of video forgery: original surveillance footage, official hotel certification, contradictory timestamps, and digital forensics reports.

2. Tracing the propagation path: The IP address was traced back to Barcelona.

3. Funding Support Clues: Cayman Islands shell company → Global Gossip editor → Catalan brokerage firm (linked to Barcelona).

"Gentlemen," Attorney Selwyn concluded, his tone calm but chilling.

"We can be 100% certain that this is a premeditated, well-funded, technically sophisticated, and malicious defamation campaign targeting Mr. Yan Yuan."

The aim was to damage Mr. Yan's public image and influence the judges' votes at this crucial moment in the Golden Globe Awards selection process.

Kroenke slammed his fist on the table, unusually losing his composure.

"Despicable! Shameless! To resort to such underhanded tactics for an award! This has completely crossed the line of sports competition!"

Edu's face was also extremely grim: "They're scared! Scared of Yan Yuan's rise, scared of Arsenal's era! So they're resorting to these despicable methods to struggle; they're just as despicable as they have in history!"

Yan's father's eyes were cold. He took a deep breath, suppressing his raging anger.

"It really is them... that 'powerhouse' from the Iberian Peninsula. Although the final report will use phrases like 'powerhouse clubs and their affiliated forces that have direct competition with Yan Yuan,' everyone knows who we're referring to. This report is our weapon!"

The meeting room was filled with a mixture of anger, disdain, and determination.

The truth came to light, and it was even worse than they had imagined.

This is no longer just about a scandal; it has escalated into a dark power struggle between clubs and even between different football forces.

"Next step," Venkatshan said calmly, regaining his composure.

"We need to devise a meticulous plan on how to use this evidence to completely clear Yan Yuan's name and give the other side the swift retaliation they deserve."

The investigation team left the meeting room carrying a wealth of evidence and righteous indignation.

A public opinion and legal battle aimed at defending honor and fighting back against malice is about to begin.

A storm is brewing; the time for reckoning is fast approaching.