Power games: Manchester United valuation highlights the chasm between the Premier League and Europe

That was the week that was

- Keir RADNEDGE

On the Monday Premier League lawyers hit Manchester City with100-plus alleged breaches of financial regulations; next day neighbours United were subject to speculation of a Qatari buyout; one day more and the European Super League spectre was revived; finally, on the Saturday, Real Madrid reclaimed the official world club crown by defeating Al Hilal in Morocco.

Power games on and off the pitch and following the money. All in a dateline sequence the major themes of elite club football: financial imbalance, multinational ownership, super league mischief and FIFA’s bid to hijack club cash.

This has left European federation UEFA – depending on your point of view – either trying to preserve administrative and competitive sanity, or attempting, Canute-like, to hold back an irresistible surge of money-driven change.

Of course, any European Super League and FIFA’s Club World Cup are distant cousins. The world federation was notably slower off the mark to condemn the ESL in its original shape two years ago; almost as if it wished it had thought of the idea first. Even FIFA president Gianni Infantino has found he must tread delicately in wanting to both run with the fox and hunt with the hounds.

The problem for the A22 company supposedly running the Super League is that the English Premier League is increasingly far out of reach of the rest. Just fancy: in brand terms, Spain, Germany, Italy and France are now considered second-class citizens. Gianni Agnelli, Santiago Bernabeu and Gabriel Hanot must be spinning in their graves.