Cristiano cannot be taken out by someone called Jesus

I am writing ahead of France v Italy and, much to your chagrin, I cannot comment on it. With a pint in hand (no double entendres intended), I am looking forward to Croatia v England this evening – a D’Annunzio-esque fixture in Rijeka, with the stadium playing behind closed doors thanks to those rascals of Croatian fans; there will only be a few children in the stands and, it seems, about a hundred English supporters – hopefully drunk. Getting drunk seems to be the only way to endure the ongoing circus surrounding the Manchester City case. Space and inclination to summarise it are both limited, but unless you have spent the past ten days picking herbs in the garden, you know what is at stake: an independent commission has found the club guilty of over 100 breaches of the Premier League’s financial regulations. Manchester City has been owned by the Abu Dhabi United Group since 2009, which purchased the club on behalf of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The commission found that between 2009 and 2018, the club entered into fictitious sponsorship contracts to artificially inflate its revenue and reduce costs, amounting to around £900 million.

Yesterday, City lodged an appeal – apparently based on the very same grounds deemed weak by the commission; some say it won’t be resolved for at least three years. The Premier League is expected to announce what sanctions will be imposed on Pep Guardiola’s former team. There is talk of fines, a transfer ban, points deductions, relegation, the stripping of trophies and so on, but it is all uncertain and up in the air; it is not clear what the millions of opposing fans – who have already bought the lubricant so they can celebrate properly – are still waiting for. The British government is reportedly concerned about damaging relations with the United Arab Emirates; in my view, the pitch remains sovereign, and it is not the role of the courts to decide who wins the league (but unlike your ‘Calciopoli’-style farces, this is not a media trial – there are years of investigations and evidence on the table), but, well, (almost) anyone can win like that, and if there has been fraud, it must be punished.

It remains to be seen whether the Portuguese Football Federation will sanction Cristiano Ronaldo for leaving the training camp after what many perceive as being misled by a mediocre coach who had him warm up for 30 minutes only to keep him on the bench. In football, not all players are equal, and an athlete who transformed a struggling national team into one of the world’s best over a decade should not be treated like any ordinary Leao. At this stage, Ronaldo’s mobility is limited, he carries the weight of nearly 1,000 career goals, and his ego remains as expansive as ever. Some experts argue that he should have retired from football a few years ago, but that remains his personal decision, and I will not join the chorus of those analysing the psychology of a player who is reluctant to retire.

He still performs better than three-quarters of those who grace Serie A pitches; he has built up a following of devoted fans and players that Messi can only dream of; he is right even when he is wrong. And above all, a man called Cristiano should not have been knocked out by a man called Jesus.