Madrid and Celtic, Champions and Super League

During the break in 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 not few anymore.

The topic of conversation was a 3-0 win over Celtic in 1980, which turned a 2-0 first-leg loss in Glasgow.

A vibrant comeback, at the level of the best, although disconnected from the most famous series.

That was the Madrid of Boskov and

, 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 is much more (two Golden Balls on the field on Wednesday, without going any further) and Celtic much less.

When everything consisted of filling your stadium and working your environment well, clubs like Benfica, Ajax, Anderlecht, Red Star or Celtic themselves competed on equal terms with anyone.

It was enough for them to gather a good generation to scare the bravest.

Now they represent small countries with small leagues, without the worldwide projection in

and television rights that the

.

And without the old border protection that the so-called Bosman Law volatilized, they cannot retain 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

born and raised in their geographical environs, but now how long could they keep Gemmel, McNeill, Lennox, Chalmers, the diabolical tiny red-haired Johnnstone…?

The Celtic that visited the Bernabéu did not have redheads and did have four Japanese.

He took an easy, almost lazy win from a Madrid that has been playing like so many others at half throttle as the World Cup approaches.

Matches like this are described by Super League supporters as pointless and boring.

Better, they say, clashes every year of all the greats of Europe with each other than these so disproportionate ones, which seem out of date and without interest.

Are you sure without interest?

The field was filled, despite the hour being too early for a weekday, 10,000 Scots came, half without a ticket, moved by the old illusion of their beloved Celtic.

In the first group game we were impressed by the reserve of old football spirit that Celtic Park retains.

All the Spaniards who attended returned delighted.

The debate is whether we keep the championship open to teams that can take a peek at it on their merits at the cost of continuing to space out the big clashes between the most illustrious or if we do the opposite: we confine the Celtics

a leper colony and cross each season in a Superliga al Madrid with Barça, Atlético, the three great Italians, the English

, Bayern and PSG… It seems tempting, but it can make monotonous what is now attractive because it is exceptional.

It would give more money, argue its supporters.

More money for fewer clubs would be the correct formulation.

They would open more and more gap in their national competitions, they could walk through it with the reserve team as they have been doing for a long time in the first Cup qualifiers. But if it is not done, they defend, this sinks, it does not resist.

I don't see the symptoms.

I don't see them in Madrid, which maintains a champion squad while completing a bold and expensive reform of the stadium in the midst of the covid crisis while digesting waste such as paying Bale a kidney for doing exactly nothing since his last renovation (

) plus the expensive and failed signings of Hazard and Jovic.

Nor do I see it at Barça, which despite jumping from a sixth floor has found financial support in a few months to revive itself, a sign that the markets do not see the industry as decrepit.

Nor at Atleti, who moved to a better home despite those omens.

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