This year will be the most expensive Champions League tournament

The importance of this growth

The Parisian club has become the latest of Madrid’s three rivals to be hit by a wave of foreign investment. Qatar Investment Authority bought it in 2012, transforming the club with glamor but little success (two Leagues and a Cup Winners’ Cup stand out in its trophy cabinet) into a powerful force in French football. During this period, the Parisians won seven League titles and six French Cups. But Qatar went to Paris to win the Champions League and PSG, despite bringing together stars (Mbappe, Messi and Neymar), only managed to reach one final (2019/20 season), which they lost to Bayern. Chelsea are the only one of the three who have touched the Champions League trophy, and twice. In fact, the Blues are the reigning champions until their successor is named on May 28. The Londoners’ second triumph came in 2012 when they beat Bayern in the final at the Allianz Stadium. Founded in 1905, Chelsea were just another London club until they were bought by Roman Abramovich in 2003. Since then, the Aristocrats have won five Premier League titles (the second was in 1955), and two Champions League cups have been added to two more European Cup Winners’ Cups (the first in 1971, won against Madrid).Without leaving England, let’s turn to Manchester City – as ambitious as PSG and Chelsea, and also built with the great goal of winning the Champions League. In 2008, the Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment joined the club and turned City into a great force in English football. Since the arrival of Eastern investment, City have won five Premier League titles (the last one dated back to 1968) but have consistently been eliminated from the European competition. Their ceiling is the final of the 2020/21 campaign, in which Guardiola’s side were beaten by Chelsea. City is Madrid’s last hurdle before the final. The thirteen-time champions must end the challenge of the 21st century by preventing the new club-state from imposing its own law and a new order on European and world football.