Fortunately, the United States and the previously known USSR ended their Space race, but not before creating constant tension between the two parts. A similar rivalry has emerged in the world of European Football by two elite groups. From the highly antagonized rich oil, political or energy-based clubs on one side to the formerly gloriously rich clubs without an unlimited supply of money.
The highlights of the former group include Chelsea which is owned by a Russian- Israeli Oligarch, Manchester City that is majorly controlled by the Abu Dhabi royal family and PSG by Qatar Sports Investments. The latter is lead by Real Madrid and their much-hated President, Florentino Perez, Barcelona and Laporta and Liverpool with their infamous Fenway group that also owns the Boston Red Sox.
In short, it seems like the first group has an unlimited supply of money while the others are “like” conservative businessmen.
Let’s take the worst of the worst as an example: Barcelona let go of their loyal superstar, Leo Messi. They also had some problems registering two of their latest high-profile signings- Memphis Depay and Sergio Aguero (whose primary reason for joined the club was Messi, but oh well). The root of both these problems was their massive $1.6 billion debt. Finally, they even let go of Antoine Griezmann, and to make matters worse loaned him to his previous club, Atletico. Furthermore, Barcelona captain, Pique and Busquets, even took salary cuts. Even Real Madrid couldn’t even buy Mbappe and Haaland in one transfer window.
These clubs even schemed the ESL– a tournament of the cream of the crop without relegation- at their lowest point. Although even clubs like Chelsea and City took part in it, they did it mainly from a prestigious point of view. They simply wanted to play more games with the so-called best European clubs. But PSG never encouraged the idea and didn’t take any part in it. When the league was reprimanded by the public, City and Chelsea were the first and second to pull out.
Speaking of City and Chelsea, they were extremely successful last season and were the winners and runners-up of the UEFA Champions League. They even had a great transfer season with City breaking records for the most expensive transfer in the Premier League with Grealish and Chelsea buying one of the top-to-be strikers, Lukaku.
But PSG beat both these teams. With five top-tier transfers including Messi, Wijnaldum, Donnarumma, Ramos and Hakimi, they have spent more money than the rest of the teams in Ligue One, combined.
At the end of the day, both sides are going all out to win this race. But the only result that matters is winning games. Regardless of how much they spent, if PSG, Chelsea or City can’t win the big games, it was all pretty much for nothing. However, Switzerland did beat France in the Euros. There are many other factors in football that can change the trajectory of a league or game. So who the winner of this stalemate is going to be, should be pretty apparent by the end of this season, and it really could be either of the two groups.
