Napoli v Real: The fixture that brought us the Champions League helps bid this version farewell
Silvio Berlusconi was so unhappy at the champions of Italy and Spain facing off in the first round of the European Cup that the Champions League was devised.
Napoli host Real Madrid on Tuesday in perhaps the pick of the games from the entire Champions League group stage, with the newly-crowned Italian kings taking on the 14-time European champions in a game that sees Carlo Ancelotti return to one of his many former abodes.
It is only the fifth meeting between the sides, and like the last-16 tie in 2016/17, it will never compare to their first set of games almost 30 years prior, which paved the way for the transformation of European football and the creation of the Champions League format we all know and love/loathe.
Back in September 1987, Napoli were taking their seat at the top table of the club game for the very first time, having won their first Serie A title the previous May.
Napoli v Real Madrid 1987
Careca kicks Real Madrid goalkeeper Buyo, who faĺls to the floor. Andrea Carnevale thinks one kick clearly wasn't enough and blatantly kicks Buyo on floor 5 seconds later a earns himself a red card
'Talk about putting the boot in' pic.twitter.com/nqkc9bdftm
— 80s&90sFootball ⚽ 🏴 🇺🇦 (@80s90sfootball) February 1, 2022
Unlike nowadays, though, there was no group stage, no seeding and no limitations on who you could draw. It was a cup competition in the purest form: 32 teams, two-legged knockout ties and one eventual winner.
The randomised draw led to Napoli catching the biggest fish possible on their maiden voyage. Real Madrid. Los Blancos. The record champions. The undisputed aristocrats of European football.
While similar clashes had happened before – notably in 1978 when Brian Clough‘s Nottingham Forest, fresh off their one and only Division One championship, defeated reigning European kings (and back-to-back winners) Liverpool in an all-English blockbuster first-round clash – this game was the tipping point for the money men now entering the sport.
Silvio Berlusconi, the media tycoon, businessman, politician, lothario, <insert other titles here>, had bought AC Milan in 1986 and was one of the first to see football for what it now is: a business, and not just a sport.
The thought of the world’s best player in Diego Maradona, who had ascended to God-like status in both Argentina and Naples having won the World Cup and Serie A in the space of 12 months, facing off against the biggest club in the world before the competition had even properly heated up did not sit well with the future four-time Italian prime minster, who labelled it “an historical anachronism”.
In his (and others’) eyes, this sort of match was fitting of a final, not a first round, and ruined the overall attraction of the competition.
There was some validity in his statements, with Napoli and Maradona crashing out of Europe before September was out having lost 3-1 on aggregate despite Diego claiming his side and city would “eat them alive” in the second leg.
Diego Maradona: Genius, entertainer, bull, demi-god, greatest
Wanting to remove the luck and randomness of the draw, Berlusconi proposed the creation of a continental league, one which see his Milan side “always go to play in Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon, not some remote provincial village”.
Going further, he added that guarantees for clubs in terms of management and revenues were needed and “clubs of a certain level that draw big crowds” should play against one another.
It all sounds a bit familiar, doesn’t it?
Napoli weren’t even invited to the Super League, an omission which their owner Aurelio De Laurentiis rather hilariously used to his advantage with both his own fanbase and Serie A. Super League? Never would have joined, mate.
Berlusconi was undoubtedly a visionary and someone who helped grow football as a sport, but like most things in life, its upside has created many other downsides. They will only increase with the introduction of the Swiss model format, which guarantees more revenue and more games but even less peril and excitement.
The old European Cup format, as well as the fairer distribution of and less disparity in wealth of the leagues, made for a more open competition, with underdogs and those pesky “provincial sides” often prevailing against more illustrious opponents.
The late 1980s saw the zenith of this with Steaua Bucharest, PSV Eindhoven and Porto all winning the famous trophy before Red Star Belgrade captured their sole title in 1990/91 after two wins for Berlusconi’s all-star Milan side. In truth, these sides’ rise was aided by the English clubs being banned from Europe following the Heysel disaster, but it is a still a world away from the modern iteration of the competition.
As the bigger clubs have profited more and more from the game and the gap to the smaller clubs has become an unending chasm, the chances of David beating Goliath, something which is far more likely in football than nearly any other sport, has only diminished. It has been to the detriment of everyone bar those lining their pockets.
When was the last time there was a shock or surprise Champions League winner? Sure, you could say Liverpool in 2005 and Chelsea in 2012 but these are relatively huge clubs, the first a serial time winner and the latter bankrolled for years by Roman Abramovich to the point that success in Europe was inevitable at one point or another.
One of the last ‘shock’ winners?
Porto’s second title in 2004 is the last time a smaller or “provincial” club have been kings of Europe and they were then instantly looted for their manager and players by the wealthier clubs on the continent.
Inter, a historical heavyweight, making the final last year felt like a welcome change, which says a whole lot.
Looking at Tuesday night’s game, it does feature two of the exclusive list of clubs who might be able to win the trophy this season, but unlike the game 36 years ago, there is next to no peril involved and, in truth, the only question is who will come first and second in the group.
It still is rather fitting that the two sides that inadvertently created the current Champions League format clash in the final season of it before we enter the latest stage in football’s transition from sport to business.