Perez gets Real slap he deserves: Neil Humphreys
Los Blancos president beaten by minnows Sheriff he didn't want to play against
The humiliation was complete. It was five months in the making, but karma popped up at the Bernabeu to deliver the sweetest justice.
Florentino Perez's greedy hypothesis was finally and conclusively debunked. The Real Madrid president had insisted that football needed saving with a European Super League. It didn't.
Football just needed saving from men like Perez.
Back in April, he was done with minnows. Underdogs had to be put down. Romance belonged in the fiction section of your local library.
Elite football was for proven winners. He had no time for losers like Sheriff Tiraspol, taking up space and getting in the way of all that cash.
There was only one sheriff in town and he wanted a Super League.
Apparently, a 74-year-old businessman from Madrid knew best what the TikTok generation wanted from the game.
A round-robin system of Clasicos, with Barcelona and Real playing their fellow European heavyweights every other week.
Big names, big match-ups and a prize of little consequence, Perez believed that a WrestleMania-like circus would send away the clowns and send in the money.
Well, how wrong can one guy be? His grubby masterplan is no more. Sheriff reminded everyone that football is not always about the elite clubs.
The plucky Moldovan side didn't just pull off one of the greatest upsets in Champions League history, scoring a glorious late winner to snatch a 2-1 victory at the Bernabeu.
They underlined the balance of power within a game that forever feels like it's being pulled away from fans and any other club not involved in Perez's mad dream.
Over in France, the image of Lionel Messi celebrating his first goal for Paris Saint-Germain conjured conflicting emotions. It felt like a corporate fait accompli, a premium package brought to us by the soft power marketing of a foreign nation.
It was a glimpse of the lopsided world that Perez sought to create with his daft scheme to conquer Europe like an unhinged Bond villain, a closed shop for the rich. Everyone else could essentially get lost.
As it turns out, smaller clubs like Sheriff do not want to slink back into the shadows.
The Moldovan side have had a taste of the spotlight and are making the most of it.
In terms of betting odds, they became the biggest underdogs to win in the Champions League in the last three seasons.
The Yellow-Blacks are playing in the tournament for the first time in their 24-year history.
Their city, Tiraspol, is located in the unrecognised breakaway state of Transnistria.
Local history and politics are problematic and club president Viktor Gushan was a former Soviet police officer.
Now he owns a business conglomerate. Even among the minnows, there are still awkward questions about funding.
But such clubs were killing the game according to Perez back in April, when he insisted that, "young people are no longer interested in football" because of "poor quality games".
There was nothing poor about Sheriff. Sebastien Thill's long-range winner is already a contender for Goal of the Tournament, while goalkeeper Giorgos Athanasiadis enthralled with a miraculous display.
Any sub-standard elements might be attributed to the hosts' wayward finishing. Real had 30 efforts on goal. Only Karim Benzema's penalty registered.
Their opponents scored twice from three shots on target.
Perez was half-right. The Group D encounter lacked quality at times. But Real were usually the culprits, a human vulnerability that he sought to eradicate with the bulletproof Super League.
With permanent membership and no chance of relegation, Perez sought to end thrilling upsets like the one witnessed at the Bernabeu.
He wanted the deck stacked in his favour, forever. He envisioned a competition without competition. Luckily, common sense prevailed in the end, rather like Sheriff yesterday morning (Singapore time).
In both instances, Perez learnt the simplest of sporting lessons. For the sake of credibility, there must always be a loser. And he has happily obliged. Twice.
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