In the break of the match against Celtic, Mónica Marchante interviewed Camacho, Pirri and Santillana. It was nice to see them there, so rosy, with the years well spent and that they are no longer few. The topic of conversation was a 3-0 win over Celtic in 1980, which turned a 2-0 first leg defeat to Glasgow. A vibrant comeback, at the level of the best, albeit disconnected from the most famous series. That was Boskov’s Madrid and le garcia, with only two foreigners, Stielike and Cunningham. They played with genius and spectacularity. Then they would fall in the semifinals against Hamburg.
Other times. Today Madrid are much more (two Ballon d’Ors on the pitch on Wednesday, without going further) and Celtic much less. When it was all about filling the stadium and working the environment well, clubs like Benfica, Ajax, Anderlecht, Red Star or Celtic competed on an equal footing with anyone. It was enough for them to gather a good generation to frighten the bravest. They now represent small countries with small leagues, without the worldwide projection in marketing and television rights that the great european espresso. And without the old border protection that the so-called Bosman Law has evaporated, they cannot preserve the values that are emerging from their environment. They lose them at an early age and try to compensate by going to smaller markets. Celtic were European champions in 1967 with eleven Lisbon Lyon born and raised in their geographic environment, but now, how long could he have kept Gemmel, McNeill, Lennox, Chalmers, the evil little red-haired Johnnstone …?
The Celtic who visited the Bernabéu did not have red hair and had four Japanese. He took an easy, almost lazy victory from a Madrid who played like so many others halfway through the accelerator as the World Cup approached. Games like this are described by Super League fans as pointless and boring. Better, they say, the clashes every year of all the great Europeans with each other than these so disproportionate, which seem antiquated and uninteresting. Are you safe without interest? The field was full, despite the time it was too early for a weekday, 10,000 Scots arrived, half without tickets, moved by the old illusion of their beloved Celtic. In the first match of the group we were struck by the reserve of the old football spirit that Celtic Park retains. All the Spaniards who participated returned happy.
The debate is whether we keep the championship open to teams that can peek into the merits at the cost of continuing to distance the great clashes among the most illustrious or if we do the opposite: we limit the Celtic in a leper colony and every season we cross Madrid in the Super League with Barça, Atlético, the three great Italians, the You are great English, Bayern and PSG … It sounds tempting, but it can make monotonous what is now attractive because it is exceptional.
It would give more money, its supporters claim. More money for fewer clubs would be the correct wording. They would open more and more openings in their national competitions, they could cover it with the reserve team as they have been doing for some time in the first qualifiers to the Cup. But if they don’t, they defend, it sinks, you can’t resist.
I don’t see the symptoms. I don’t see them in Madrid, maintaining a roster of champions as they complete a bold and expensive stadium reform in the midst of the covid crisis while digesting waste like paying Bale a kidney for doing exactly nothing since his last renovation (Wales, golf, Madrid. In this order) plus the expensive and unsuccessful signings of Hazard and Jovic. Nor do I see him at Barça, which despite having jumped from a sixth floor has found in a few months financial support to recover, a sign that the markets do not see the decrepit sector. Nor to Atleti, who despite those omens has moved to a better home.
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