The continuous movement

Continuous motion exists. It is represented by two spheres: the planet Earth and a soccer ball. The Earth has been spinning and moving like this for 4.5 billion years. The soccer ball, which fascinates 4.5 billion people, half the world's population , is considerably less so. But it plays in so many club and national team competitions, some new and others old but expanded, that it seems impossible there are available dates to locate them and enough soccer players to serve them.

But money, like the Devil, works wonders. It can't buy time. It can't distort it by lengthening, expanding, or broadening it. But by redistributing it, molding it, it makes it more flexible. And with it, all those who move within its strict limits.

This mammoth Club World Cup, created against all logic in a packed calendar, is above all about money. A compelling argument, persuasive to the point of incontestability, seductive to the point of irresistibility, it convinces disaffected teams and weary players to embark on an uncertain adventure in a disinterested country. Even the last monkey in the competition will profit from the billion euros that will be showered on the participants, drawn to the tournament like butterflies to light. Or, more prosaically, like flies to honey.

The World Cup gold rush plunged clubs into turmoil, anxiety, and impatience. It unblocked calm operations, brought forward postponed urgent matters, and accelerated the transfer market, many of whom will make their debut in the competition with a bang. It eliminated breaks, shortened deadlines, altered rhythms, and precipitated events.

The tournament lacks the universality that geographically justifies the name World Cup. There are plenty of marginal teams on the map of major international football, who would struggle in the early stages of the Champions League or even the Libertadores. And, victims of the improvable invitation system, some of the world's best teams are missing, along with their corresponding individual stars. To begin with, the recent champions of the Spanish, English, and Italian leagues.

Nervous, restless, under pressure, Madrid heads to the World Cup in a state of sporting necessity and financial greed. Two sides of the same coin. Or one side of the same coin. More dependent than any other club on the simultaneous demand for titles and bottom lines, it needs titles to earn more money, and money to sign more and better players who will bring it titles. This also refers to continuous movement.

Xabi Alonso , newly arrived, didn't want to start under such pressure, without warming up first, at an event shoehorned into the annual schedule and abruptly and preferentially incorporated into the Real Madrid objectives. But he has bowed to Florentino Perez , who is in a hurry to heal wounds and move on. In the Madrid autocracy, which interferes to the point of appropriating it in the technical field, there also prevails a decent sense of responsibility that redeems it from its excesses. Valdebebas, fortunately for Real Madrid, is not Moncloa.