Soon after his election as president of Real Madrid two decades ago, Florentino Pérez conceived the germ of the idea that would become the European Super League. The dream was made flesh last Sunday and two days later died, betrayed, as he sees it, by an old enemy, La Pérfida Albión — Perfidious Albion.
What was billed as a war between Europe’s richest clubs and the football establishment ended in an overnight rout. But Pérez, the project’s prime mover, refuses to admit defeat. All his English allies pulled out, then the Italians, but he insists that the Super League is still standing.
It is. Like Monty Python’s Black Knight. In the celebrated sketch, King Arthur chops off the Black Knight’s arms and legs and retires
