Tebas and Rubiales, agreeing to disagree
Cristiano Ronaldo arrived back in Madrid yesterday ahead of one of the most appealing ties in the Champions League Round of 16, the very same day that Luis Rubiales outlined a new proposal for Spanish football: a new format for the Super Cup, a "Final Four" that would see the Copa del Rey finalists go head-to-head with the first and second places sides in LaLiga with the games to be played overseas. An expansive initiative for our game and not one that is dissimilar to the recent Tebas proposal for the Girona-Barça game to be staged in Miami. Both schemes have the same objective in availing of the success of Spanish football and help forge new markets for the brand. This may be complex to implement, as we saw was the case with the LaLiga Miami experiment but worthy of analysis nonetheless.
Tension
Tebas, as expected has shown opposition to the proposal and he claims to have discovered 'inconveniences'. He wonders if Spanish clubs would be prepared to give up their lucrative summer tours for this event. Maybe they would, maybe not, maybe they could find a way of weaving the 'Final Four Super Copa' into their planning. What does surprise me is that both initiatives, the Miami project and this 'Supercopa' idea both aspire to the same objective which is to promote Spanish football overseas. Despite the common goal, both men will see flaws in the other project and vice-versa. Here we have a situation of two fine leaders who waste energy on quarreling with each other.
Duel
It does sadden me with the tension between both individuals being indicative of the current political climate in Spain. It's a case of "what ever the other side says, I'll disagree with" and if possible add a 'below the belt' type comment for added impact. Maybe both men watch too many news bulletins where this type of behaviour seems to be the norm in modern politics. It would be better if they spent time together as they both share much common ground when looking at a long term vision where Spanish football is concerned, but sadly they seem happier to look for reasons to argue. Anyhow, back to where we started....Cristiano's back in Madrid ahead of the test against Atleti. Cristiano against Griezmann....now there's another interesting sparring match.