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Florentino Pérez wouldn’t have it any other way. After the Spanish court handed down its latest ruling in the Super League case on Monday, the Real Madrid president’s inner circle was quick to assure everyone that the ruling actually represented a victory for the project. This is despite the fact that almost all legal experts deemed the outcome meaningless.
UEFA see no real threat to this Super League repeat at present, although that would beg to differ from the reaction in Spain, where this is being widely heralded as yet another victory for Pérez, a man to whom he is accustomed and whose ambitions are being realised almost by will.
The current state of European football looks set to be dominated by Real Madrid for the next decade, which makes it all the more puzzling why Pérez is trying to destroy European football through his Super League.
This Saturday, Madrid will be hoping to win their 15th Champions League, more than double the seven titles won by AC Milan, the next most successful club in the biggest winds of football history.
Fear of a similar fate was one of the main drivers behind the Super League in the first place. Pérez feared that the world he had created would expand beyond his control, especially due to the power of state-owned clubs. Neymar’s move from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain shocked Pérez, who feared a similar fate would befall Real Madrid’s stars. He was horrified by how much it cost to maintain the Champions League-winning team from 2013-18 – a figure that was a bit exaggerated, given that Pérez ushered in an era with the transfer of Luis Figo in 2000 and that Madrid had dictated the size of the transfer market for many years.
There were more legitimate complaints about the outcome of a series of Financial Fair Play cases involving PSG and Manchester City, in which both clubs were apparently given light penalties on four occasions. The Super League was essentially an attempt to absorb and control national clubs, but is now widely seen as an act of desperation rather than power, and unsurprisingly ended in a humiliating defeat.
That feeling didn’t last long, and not just because Perez is too brazen and shameless: Madrid turned their crushing defeat into their greatest strength.
Their rich history from their dominance in the 1950s continues into this modern era, positioning them almost as the anti-City. These two clubs are arguably the two biggest powers that make up the two peaks at the top of modern football, as evidenced by the fact that their quarter-final was deemed the “true final”. Borussia Dortmund may have something to say about it on Saturday, but it’s not going to change the course of football.
Similarly, there are two sides to Madrid’s resurgence: one that brings new concerns, the other that brings new praise.
Despite his obsession with Galacticos, Pérez also had the foresight to relinquish some of his power. Realising that they could not compete with the huge wages, Madrid turned their attention to young players, particularly from Brazil. Juni Calafat knew that market better than anyone and was appointed head of international player acquisitions, but he went beyond that to become one of the most important figures in the modern Madrid.
The Brazilian was the perfect embodiment of Madrid’s new philosophy of developing stars rather than buying them. Five of the main starting line-up – Federico Valverde, Vinicius Junior, Rodrigo, Eduardo Camavinga and Jude Bellingham – were signed as teenagers, while the other two, Eder Militao and Aurélien Chouameni, were signed at 21 and 22 respectively.
Madrid have essentially rebuilt the club by acquiring one promising player each summer, making them the ultra-luxurious Dortmund, and Endrick is poised to emerge.
Remarkably, in modern football, none of this is the result of sophisticated structures or advanced analysis – those who work in Madrid say it’s more an almost sophisticated simplicity – Calafat bases his work on a small network of scouts he deeply trusts and is prepared to plan years ahead.
In the first team, Carlo Ancelotti keeps things similarly simple.
With the Italian manager uninterested in the ideologies that govern modern football and staff such as his son Davide focused on more modern principles such as when to apply pressure, Ancelotti is seen as the end of an era in terms of talent management, with an uncanny instinct for how games unfold and what needs to be changed.
It’s all culminated in a record-breaking team and what could be another record-breaking season: a 15th Champions League title, a fifth Spanish League-Champions League double and a fifth Champions League title for Ancelotti, all but certain.
But the excitement over Madrid’s return is tempered by concern about what will happen next. This season’s Champions League has not seen the same emotional rebellion as in 2021-22, when the triumph of a transitional team came as a surprise.
A 15th Champions League title is a great record, but it’s almost just a number. They’re so far ahead of the rest of Europe that it doesn’t mean much more and it takes away some of the meaning of breaking the record. It’s a common problem in football, the same old thing over and over again.
There’s no doubt they have produced even more influential figures: Madrid have long been one of the most influential in lobbying for more money to go to the big clubs, and they were central to the radical reforms in 2016 when the idea of Champions League “royalties” – prize money for past performances – was introduced. Madrid has unsurprisingly been one of the main beneficiaries of media rights in Spain, fighting doggedly to keep them wildly uneven.
Many people who have met with Pérez say he will never accept any proposal unless he is guaranteed to keep Madrid at the top of the table.
He is now on course to get the club back where he wants it to be. Madrid are on the brink of defending European champions and are about to pay a huge fee to the best player in the world, Kylian Mbappé. Mbappé will play in a renovated Bernabéu that now looks like an NFL stadium inside, having been completely renovated with American funding after a 380 million euro deal with Sixth Street to take 30 percent of the stadium’s operations.
This is not necessarily healthy for football, as it allows this extreme capitalism to indirectly influence a club that is supposed to be member-owned. In reality, the political structure has allowed Pérez to act almost like an owner, rather than an elected manager. Madrid no longer even has elections. Barcelona is in crisis after crisis.
From there, Madrid now seems intent on turning La Liga into Ligue 1 or Bundesliga. A duopoly can become a monopoly. Madrid is back to being the great white shark of European football. In Spain, this is unlikely to be discussed much because of Pérez and the media-industrial complex that surrounds Madrid. This is what he wants. He has power in many areas of Spanish society, from football to construction, politics and media. “God wears a white shirt,” they often say. To quote Pérez:
The debate over Super League has become even more ironic: Pérez complains that younger fans may not want to watch in future, but that’s partly because of the world he has created. Unpredictability is disappearing.
We could see a similar scene if Real Madrid wins the Champions League for the sixth time in 11 years. IllusionAs Perez says, the competition certainly needs more diverse winners, perhaps even a win for Dortmund on Saturday.
That seems unlikely given the world Pérez has reshaped. He has blazed a new trail. History is an essential part of the Madrid fabric, but it also allows them to take control of the future.