Food For Thought: Are Real Madrid 'Selling Their Soul' By Going Asian?

Real Madrid Planning To Change Kickoff Times - Good Or Bad?

If you haven't read this already, then you need to do so now. Spanish sports daily AS reports that Real Madrid president Florentino Perez is planning to change the kickoff times of his Galactic Real Madrid team next season. It reports that Perez is planning to try and convince ‘the different broadcasters in Spain to move the Merengues' matches to 15:00 CET during the winter months and 16:00 CET in spring time (anywhere between 20:00 to 22:00 in Asia).’

It's being estimated that this will push up Madrid's TV viewers to 1.8 billion wordwide; and TV viewers translate into money.

Now, the question is: is this a good thing?

If you are in Asia and follow football, then yes. You would get to watch the Cristiano Ronaldos, Kakas, Rauls, Iker Casillases and Karim Benzemas at a very convenient time, maybe over dinner or over supper. For example, in India usually you would have to stay up late night to watch Spanish football and although that is something a Spanish football lover would do without any kind of reluctance, for the more 'casual' viewers it is not quite possible. With the prospective new kickoff time, everyone who would otherwise be watching the Premier League during evening time could watch Real Madrid.

Which would be a good thing. In most parts of Asia, including India, the Premier League reigns supreme. With the new kickoff timing of at least the most successful Spanish football team, Spanish football would come into more prominence and people would be treated to some silky, graceful and elegant football that is played by even the Sporting de Gijons of the Iberian nation.

But isn’t this what the Premier League follows? And everyone claims that English football has sold its soul in more ways than one and not just in selling itself to the Asian market.

So is Spanish football going along the same path?

For one thing, football wouldn't have become what it is at the moment without people acting as consumers and watching football on TV. For all talks of football becoming a business, there is always the undeniable truth that without the Asians, the North and South Americans and the Australians, football wouldn't have become as global as it is today or as massive a spectacle as it is today.

But the question is whether shifting Madrid's kickoff times to suit Asian and other continents' viewers could potentially wind up the local Spanish public. After all, irrespective of what someone in Japan sitting on his couch and watching Ronaldo do a Ronaldo flick on a flat screen plasma TV thinks or does, the Madrid supporter inside the Bernabeu is primary and above all others.

Real Madrid the club wasn't established to showcase its Galacticos to someone far removed from its locality, politics or culture and it would be interesting to see what the Madrid supporters in the Spanish capital make of this prospective shift in match timings.

Did Inter Milan Really Need Lucio?

Inter Milan were by far the best side in Italy last season and deservingly won the Serie A for the third year running (on the pitch). Yet, like always, the Nerazzurri failed in the Champions League and it would be biggest lie in the world if one said that Jose Mourinho's priority is not the European Cup next season.

Inter had already signed Diego Milito and Thiago Motta earlier in the summer - one a world class striker who would act as the perfect targetman and score 20 goals a season and another a born-again central midfielder- and had recalled proven flop Ricardo Quaresma.

Inter's major need is a creative midfielder, a playmaker who would create moves and take some of the burden of creativity off Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but it's been a surprise to most, if not all, that Mourinho decided to sign a defender, and a centre-back at that.

Lucio might be a world-class central defender, perhaps in the top five in the world at the moment, but did Inter really need him? The Nerazzurri already have the best defensive unit in the Serie A- although admittedly they are too defensive for a champion and play with a caution-first approach - and in Ivan Cordoba, Marco Materazzi, Walter Samuel and Cristian Chivu have four world-class centre-backs, Chivu's injury problems notwithstanding.

So why would Mourinho sign Lucio?

Well, the Brazilian is a great centre-back, possibly even a complete one, and retains the capability to get past opposition defenders in the opposition penalty area and is a great leader. But Cordoba is a great leader himself at the back and Lucio isn't young either - 2010 could be his last World Cup finals.

But no doubt that with the signing of Lucio Inter Milan have strengthened their defence massively and maybe it is from the back that Mourinho is planning to win the Champions League in 2009-2010. Maxwell might leave for Barcelona but teenager Davide Santon has proved himself to be a very mature and capable right-footed left fullback and should be more than a perfect replacement for the Brazilian.

Subhankar Mondal