Philosophising the most important game in world football

Naming the most important club game in club football is perhaps more of a poser than you’d think.

There are two major contenders for the title and both will occur today. The case for one challenger, the UEFA Champions League Final is based around the prestige (and money) that accompanies winning the title of best team in the best league in the most competitive confederation. The case for the other competitor, the English League Championship Playoff Final, revolves around the money (and prestige) that accompanies promotion to the world’s richest league.

The monies on offer are truly remarkable. For winning the most lucrative club competition on Earth, either Real or Atletico Madrid will pocket up to €50 million (or about 1/10^th of Atleti’s debt); while estimates vary on the worth of promotion to the English Premier League, recent hearsay puts the financial windfall for Derby County or Queens Park Rangers somewhere between £80-120 million – potentially three times as much as for the continent’s premier competition.

Players would certainly opt for the Champions League. Administrators, depending on the club, might flip-flop depending on the media forum in which they’re speaking. Fans – well, that’s a different story.

It goes without saying that the Champions League trophy carries just a little more kudos than does the award presented to (at best) the third-best club in England’s second division. As are sponsorship opportunities – for Atletico, at any rate. But, as clubs like Birmingham City, Leeds United and Norwich City have discovered recently, the revenues that the Premiership generates can be life-sustaining (or at least life-altering) – potentially more so than victory in the Champions League.

The counterargument is based purely on the reasons behind football as a concept – do you watch to see your team excel, or is a high, Icarian flight (c.f. Portsmouth) that ends in a near-fatal swan dive worth the fiscal risk not worth the risk? As a fan – or administrator – do you value survival and/or the opportunity to test yourself in an achievable competition, or the (pen)ultimate glory? You play to win the game – but at all costs?

The most important game in club football then depends very much on the audience and can be distilled down to one paraphrase: Survive, or advance?

How to not be a faceless corporate victory tank

The Champions League semi-final draws are now complete, and Bayern Munich will face Real Madrid in one leg, with the other matching Chelsea with Atletico Madrid. While it’s not certain that the four best teams in Europe have qualified for the Final Four, there can be little argument that this quartet are certainly the most deserving.

The most visible storyline emerging from the draw concerns the fate of Atletico Madrid’s goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, the Belgian prodigy playing for Atleti temporarily – or not – while waiting to assume Petr Cech’s Chelsea mantle. The loan agreement between the two clubs did not explicitly state that the player would be allowed to play against his parent club, meaning his appearance against the Blues would incur a €3 million “penalty fee” per match, an amount far in excess of what Los Rojiblancos’ balance sheet could justify.

It is still unclear as to whether the youngster will be able to play in the quarter-finals, but a ruling today from UEFA seems to strikes positive chords for both Atletico and Courtois. Despite the inevitable (and potentially legally justifiable) clamour that will emerge from West London in response, this is the best solution for the competition.

Courtois has become such a factor for his proxy team that robbing Atleti of his presence would lessen the competition’s status as the world’s most elite football league. Courtois has featured so heavily in his three years at Vicente Calderon that employing his understudy would greatly de-harmonise defensive understanding – a key factor in coach Diego Simeone’s tactics – and rob the side of some morale simply due to their not having one of the world’s top handful of goalkeepers available. Atleti would certainly still be capable of winning the tie, but it would be far more difficult.

Were Chelsea to win without facing Courtois, it would be a hollow victory, a defeat of a team minus one of its key components. Any legal challenge made by the Blues would be an attempt at slanting the balance of the tie in their favour – which they have every right to do – but would nonetheless seem unsporting. But no matter what the context, a larger organization using legal intricacies to minimize their smaller opponents’ chance of victory just doesn’t smell good.

Chelsea have more money than, well, just about everybody. Atletico Madrid employ a goalkeeper on loan from a more prosperous club because he was the most cost-effective option they could find. The club couldn’t afford to replace Manchester-bound David De Gea with a goalkeeper of similar quality permanently, and thus were forced to rely on the loan market.

Mendeleev Tank, courtesy wikipedia

The situation has worked wonderfully well for all three parties: Atletico obtained a potentially world-class keeper, Courtois got ample game time and developed into one of the world’s best, while Chelsea allowed another club to turn an asset into one far more valuable while also earning back a significant chunk of his transfer fee. To further encumber Atletico by legally challenging UEFA’s ruling is their right – but would also turn Abramovich’s behemoth further into a faceless corporate victory tank.

Having the superior financial resources to purchase Courtois in the first place is one thing – bully for Chelsea FC. To then further use that stash to inconvenience opponents who just don’t have the same fiscal means begins to look a little antisocial.

Shall we celebrate Atletico Madrid now?

Let’s take a minute to appreciate and thank Atletico Madrid. La Rojiblancos have just interrupted a 119-week stint in La Liga in which the Big Two rotated at the league’s apex – the last 59 manned solely by Barca – and mourned favourite son Luis Aragones in a loamy, rose-tinted weekend.

Former coach Aragones, who spent nearly a quarter of a century at the club as player and manager, passed away on Saturday as a result of leukaemia at the age of 75. In helming La Furia Roja to victory at Euro 2008, he managed Spain to their first major trophy since 1964.

Despite selling each of its past five most appealing assets* for significant sums and looking likely to do so again this Summer*, Atletico Madrid has invested in an exciting lineup of young playmakers who are able to build from a stoic defence. Despite a 3-0 loss to rivals Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey last night, their 2013-14 season has been a successful one.

courtesy: en.wikipedia.org

It’s time to recognize that achievement. Breaking football’s class caste system – even temporarily – occurs so rarely nowadays that it’s a pleasure to behold, sometimes if it comes at your own club’s expense. In Spain, the top tier contains Real Madrid and Barcelona; there is room for no one else. Underdog appeal underpins every sporting movie simply because the masses can relate, giving the trope box-office pop. When an unfancied squad (even if they are the fourth-largest club in the country) wins a battle in real life then, we should similarly enjoy those small victories.

An old adage states that the only way of finding out how good you are is to actually play the games.

Over the past decade or so, this statement has lost some of its cache as this class system has quickly become entrenched. In 2014, the major Euroleagues are dominated by a plutocracy derived from cash nouveau or Boston-type old money, resulting in nationwide competitions that have devolved into mini-leagues that limit hope to besting their immediate rivals at year’s end.

The rise to prominence of football-based computer games and social media editorialisation – with or without taking in more-available-than-ever match footage – only heightens this perceived stratification: excepting the odd Manchester United/Stoke City outlier, we now accept that the same predictable teams finish in (about) the same predictable positions.

While Atleti certainly aren’t paupers, they certainly haven’t been in the same strata as their now-direct rivals. A change at the top is nice, even if it isn’t always entirely successful or long term. Not only will Montpellier HSC fans forever embrace their 2010-12 Ligue 1 performances (that came straight from promotion), but so will football. La Rojiblancos have perhaps a more storied history than the la Pallaide, breaking into the Iberian duopoly is still a triumph that should have knowledgeable fans smiling.

* Fernando Torres, Sergio Aguero, David De Gea, Diego Forlan and Radamel Falcao