{"id":63531,"date":"2024-06-01T04:45:11","date_gmt":"2024-06-01T04:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/01\/the-champions-leagues-most-bitter-rivalry-may-be-off-the-field\/"},"modified":"2024-06-01T04:45:11","modified_gmt":"2024-06-01T04:45:11","slug":"the-champions-leagues-most-bitter-rivalry-may-be-off-the-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/01\/the-champions-leagues-most-bitter-rivalry-may-be-off-the-field\/","title":{"rendered":"The Champions League\u2019s Most Bitter Rivalry May Be Off the Field"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"549\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/01\/multimedia\/01champions-league-final-btlh\/01champions-league-final-btlh-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,549&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"The Champions League\u2019s Most Bitter Rivalry May Be Off the Field\" title=\"The Champions League\u2019s Most Bitter Rivalry May Be Off the Field\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Real Madrid had the celebratory jerseys ready as soon as its place in the Champions League final was secured. As the players raced to one another, exulting in yet another heart-stopping, nerve-shredding win, staff members sprinted onto the field after them, ensuring each star was correctly attired.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On the back of each shirt was the latest club-approved slogan: <em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">A Por La 15<\/em>. For the 15th. The shorthand ran the risk of coming across as hubris: Real Madrid\u2019s 15th Champions League title was still one win away. Nobody, though, seemed especially worried. The Champions League, as far as the team that has won it twice as often as anyone else is concerned, very much belongs to Real Madrid.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That belief has put the Spanish club at the center of a power struggle whose stakes include nothing less than control over the future of European soccer. It\u2019s a bitter fight between wealthy clubs and powerful administrators over who matters most, who should set the agenda and \u2014 perhaps most important \u2014 who should benefit from the billions of dollars of broadcast and sponsorship revenue the continent\u2019s richest competitions generate every year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The clash features two of the most powerful figures in world soccer: Real Madrid\u2019s unabashed president, Florentino P\u00e9rez, representing European soccer\u2019s old guard, against the leader of the continent\u2019s governing body, Aleksander Ceferin, who has wielded influence and threats to maintain his own version of the status quo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And it has placed UEFA \u2014 European soccer\u2019s governing body, and the organization that actually runs the competition \u2014 in an increasingly awkward position of regularly celebrating a club that represents a serious threat to its authority.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Victory against Germany\u2019s Borussia Dortmund on Saturday would mean Real Madrid has been crowned champion of UEFA\u2019s marquee competition <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/02\/14\/sports\/soccer\/real-madrid-florentino-perez.html\" title=\"\">six times in the last decade<\/a>. At the same time, it is entering the third year of a bitter legal struggle, conducted largely through proxies, designed if not to destroy the Champions League then certainly to bring about the most sweeping changes in its history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The precise status of that battle varies depending on the perspective of the combatants. Last week, a Spanish court <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/articles\/cw55dqlv5nno#:~:text=Uefa%20and%20Fifa%20were%20wrong,and%20abusing%20their%20dominant%20position.\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">issued a ruling<\/a> that Real Madrid and its allies took as a ringing endorsement of their attempts to launch a rival Super League: a successor to the Champions League that is owned and operated by soccer\u2019s biggest clubs, free from the auspices of UEFA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe era of monopoly is definitively over,\u201d said Bernd Reichart, the chairman of A22, the consultancy firm that is serving as the public face of the P\u00e9rez-backed Super League project.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">UEFA\u2019s reading of the situation was <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uefa.com\/news-media\/news\/028d-1afd49655461-f39aac5241e7-1000--uefa-statement-on-today-s-judgment-of-the-madrid-commercial-\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">markedly different<\/a>. \u201cThe court has not given the green light to, nor has it approved, projects like the Super League,\u201d it said in a statement. \u201cIn fact, the judge has asserted that the Super League project has long been abandoned and that she cannot be expected to rule on any abstract projects.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That has left both sides, and their powerful presidents, locked in an unsatisfactory stalemate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Privately, UEFA insists that it does not regard the current incarnation of Mr. P\u00e9rez\u2019s Super League vision as any sort of threat. At the same time, it has consistently been unable to land any sort of decisive blow, one that might definitively end of the project.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The effect has been to render relations between UEFA and Real Madrid in general \u2014 and between Mr. P\u00e9rez and Mr. Ceferin, in particular \u2014 increasingly strained and ever more personal: In a set of WhatsApp messages <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/theobjective.com\/espana\/tribunales\/2024-05-23\/uefa-ceferin-florentino-perez-idiota-racista\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">leaked online<\/a> last week, it was reported that Mr. Ceferin had once described Mr. P\u00e9rez as an \u201cidiot and a racist.\u201d He has not challenged the accuracy of the report by an online publication, The Objective.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The men were set to meet again on Friday for a customary dinner involving delegations from the finalists and UEFA\u2019s hierarchy. The last time they had broken bread on such occasion was in Paris in 2022, only months after the supernova that was the Super League\u2019s <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/04\/22\/sports\/soccer\/super-league-soccer.html\" title=\"\">short, unhappy life<\/a> ended.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Back then, they navigated the pregame protocols required of them without incident. Nothing awkward \u2014 like Mr. Perez\u2019s attempts to destroy the Champions League \u2014 was discussed around the table. And the night ended with a smiling <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/UEFA\/status\/1530443846659756038?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1530443846659756038%7Ctwgr%5E454215cee1cf49fe89ff94a701c88910cba9a0eb%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.managingmadrid.com%2F2022%2F5%2F28%2F23145425%2Fflorentino-meets-ceferin-presents-him-with-a-gift\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Mr. P\u00e9rez presenting Mr. Ceferin<\/a> with a model of Real Madrid\u2019s revamped Santiago Bernab\u00e9u Stadium.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Animosity, though, is never far from the surface, and serves as ample illustration of just how fundamentally opposed their positions remain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Ceferin sees UEFA as the ultimate guardian of European soccer, the pinnacle of its pyramid. To Mr. P\u00e9rez, soccer\u2019s hierarchy runs downstream from the game\u2019s most powerful clubs, and one of them more than any other.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In 2021, when Real Madrid \u2014 together with A22 and 11 of Europe\u2019s other elite teams \u2014 launched the Super League, the most discordant issue was why, exactly, it wished to bring about the end of the Champions League. It was, after all, the competition that imbues Mr. P\u00e9rez\u2019s club with its <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/04\/12\/sports\/soccer\/chelsea-real-madrid-champions-league.html\" title=\"\">sense of self<\/a>. It is the tournament that has served both to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/05\/27\/sports\/soccer\/real-madrid-florentino-perez.html\" title=\"\">define and to cement his presidency<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. P\u00e9rez, though, did not view the Super League as a replacement for the Champions League. It would, instead, be little more than a new iteration. Asked, by one of his preferred media outlets if winning the Super League would count toward Real Madrid\u2019s ever-growing tally of European titles, P\u00e9rez confirmed it would. The Champions League, in his mind, is wherever Real Madrid is.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Over the last decade, it has become a difficult view to challenge. In 2013, Real Madrid was nursing a deep-seated fear that it had become cursed in the competition. It had won the last of its nine trophies in 2002; ending its wait, and claiming a 10th title had become something of a fixation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. P\u00e9rez had overseen lavish spending in that pursuit \u2014 recruiting stars like Cristiano Ronaldo, Kak\u00e1, Xabi Alonso and Karim Benzema \u2014 when, in 2013, he paid what was then a world-record fee for Gareth Bale, an explosive Welsh forward. In his introductory news conference, Bale confirmed that he had already learned how to say one phrase in Spanish: La d\u00e9cima (the 10th).<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">His vocabulary expanded only a little in the years that followed, but then it did not need to. Real Madrid broke its drought the following spring, beating its city rival, Atl\u00e9tico, in Lisbon. Title No. 11, la und\u00e9cima, followed in 2016, and la duod\u00e9cima in 2017.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The following year, la tred\u00e9cima \u2014 title No. 13 \u2014 made Real Madrid the first team in almost half a century to win the competition three times in a row. Real Madrid swatted aside Liverpool in 2022 to give the club <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.realmadrid.com\/es-ES\/noticias\/futbol\/primer-equipo\/especiales\/la-decimocuarta\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">la decimocuarta<\/a> (the numbers have, admittedly, become less catchy over time) and P\u00e9rez the sixth European crown of his presidency.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It is the same number acquired by Santiago Bernab\u00e9u, the totemic president of the club\u2019s golden era, the man for whom Real Madrid\u2019s gleaming stadium is named. On Saturday at Wembley, P\u00e9rez has the chance to surpass him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For continental Europe\u2019s grand old clubs \u2014 Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus and the rest \u2014 the idea of the Super League was a last roll of the dice from a group that feared it would no longer be able to compete with its rivals in England\u2019s Premier League, awash with broadcasting revenue, and teams like Manchester City and Paris St.-Germain who have the backing of nation states. It was, they believed, the only way to retain their prestige.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In Real Madrid\u2019s case, that fight no longer seems quite so pressing. The club is in the middle of a period of dominance that is unparalleled in soccer\u2019s modern era. It has a squad embroidered with some of the brightest young talent in the world, soon to be garlanded with a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/10\/world\/europe\/psg-mbappe-real-madrid.html\" title=\"\">couple<\/a> <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/story\/_\/id\/40247526\/endrick-palmeiras-last-game-joining-real-madrid\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">more<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That Mr. P\u00e9rez continues to stoke the embers of the Super League project suggests that the cause is no longer existential angst. It has, instead, become a struggle for control, an assertion of power, a test of strength.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">His view \u2014 that it is the clubs who compete in the Champions League that lend the tournament its prestige and its allure, and therefore that it is the clubs who should be in charge \u2014 was perhaps best expressed at a meeting of Real Madrid\u2019s members late last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cMaybe,\u201d he told the assembly, to widespread applause, \u201cUEFA needs to be reminded what Real Madrid is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Tariq Panja contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/01\/world\/europe\/real-madrid-uefa-champions-league.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Real Madrid had the celebratory jerseys ready as soon as its place in the Champions League final was secured. As the players raced to one another, exulting in yet another heart-stopping, nerve-shredding win, staff members sprinted onto the field after them, ensuring each star was correctly attired. On the back of each shirt was the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/01\/multimedia\/01champions-league-final-btlh\/01champions-league-final-btlh-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10686,6686,179,36637,7376],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63531"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63531"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63533,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63531\/revisions\/63533"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}