Real and Chelsea owe fans a spectacle: Neil Humphreys
After their hierarchy's Super League debacle, only the players can bail them out
Real Madrid and Chelsea owe us a masterpiece. Anything less may feel fraudulent.
Only last week, they declared themselves classical works, worthy of playing clasicos on a regular, permanent basis.
They planned on being eternal winners, even when they were losers.
| REAL MADRID | CHELSEA |
Now they are just losers.
The first leg of their Champions League semi-final tomorrow morning (Singapore time) has no lesser-of-two-evils option, no redeemable feature beyond the game itself.
Maybe the game itself has to win. A decent spectacle can make us care again. Both sides owe us that much at least, after conspiring to create a closed shop.
This semi-final is essentially the third act of the Titanic movie, only there are two Billy Zane characters, two wealthy cretins seeking to leave the poorer classes below deck while they steal away and escape to new riches elsewhere.
In the movie, Zane escaped. He turned his back on the sinking Titanic, hiding his guilt and shame.
Florentino Perez has no time for such puerile emotions. There's a universally loathed European Super League (ESL) to salvage and an established football pyramid to destroy. The Real Madrid president is nothing if not consistent.
As his footballers trudge along to their training ground for a Champions League semi-final, Perez refuses to back down.
CARNAGE
He clings to the rails of the ESL's sinking vessel as the bodies bounce around him, utterly oblivious to the carnage.
In a discussion on a late-night show in Spain, Perez blamed the English clubs for losing their nerve and accused the Chelsea protesters of being stooges.
Los Merengues' might want to buy their president a muzzle. He's proving to be a flawless motivational speaker for Chelsea.
Thomas Tuchel's work is done. Just pin Perez's deluded comments to the dressing room wall.
The irony should be lost on no one. Perez's plans essentially refused to acknowledge the fans' existence. Now he is literally doing just that, claiming the fans outside Stamford Bridge did not exist.
He said the protesting supporters were stooges. They were not real fans and English clubs were weak for caving to these imposters.
Seriously, objectively, how can anyone wish this man a safe passage into the Champions League final?
Perez still seeks to weaken the actual tournament that his bewildered footballers are playing in tomorrow morning.
There's a valid argument that both sides have brought the competition into disrepute and should face expulsion rather than exaltation.
The cackling antics of Emperor Perez are so outlandish he's managed to paint Roman Abramovich - Chelsea owner, absentee oligarch and traditional pantomime villain - as a penitent martyr of sorts.
The poor billionaire only wanted a football club of his own to watch on his super yacht. He didn't need the extra cash, so he was one of the first to bail on Perez's social experiment in extreme capitalism.
Neutral sympathies might lie with Tuchel's Blues, if their owner hadn't still acquiesced to a private-members club that would have generated a reported extra 300 million euros (S$480.3m) for the chosen few and starved the rest.
More than the money, though, it's the awful, misplaced arrogance of expecting a permanent place at Europe's top table. Nottingham Forest have collected one more European Cup than Chelsea. Ajax Amsterdam have three more. And yet, the Blues belong in the continental country club?
They belong in the doghouse, along with the rest of the dirty dozen.
Real and Chelsea are now obligated to repair relationships with two institutions they treated with contempt - the Champions League and the fans.
Obviously, the players are not at fault. But they could do their owners a favour.
Real's stellar midfield of Toni Kroos, Casemiro and Luka Modric could step into the minefield and diffuse the bombs that their unapologetic president continues to drop whenever he defends his Frankenstein's monster of a tournament.
QUIET REVOLUTION
Meanwhile, Tuchel's quiet revolution - improving Chelsea's defence, getting a rare goal from Timo Werner at the weekend and guiding the club to a first Champions League semi-final since 2014 - has been a positive story in a dreary season.
Now they need to put on a show.
Last week, Real and Chelsea's plans dismissed the Champions League. They just didn't care.
Tomorrow morning, they need to give us a reason to care about them.
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