Let's make a story out of two cities.

Let's look from Paris, from the fans celebrating Messi's arrival in front of the Parc des Princes stadium, to London.

Let's look back 113 days from Wednesday to April 20th.

Back then, on Tuesday, there was a Premier League game going on at Stamford Bridge.

32nd matchday, Chelsea FC versus Brighton & Hove Albion, final score 0: 0.

But it wasn't because of the goalless game that what happened in front of the stadium was more interesting.

Fans demonstrated against their own club.

Against the Super League, Chelsea and the clubs from Milan, Manchester and Liverpool, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, ​​which Juventus, Tottenham and Arsenal had made public.

The protest at Stamford Bridge and elsewhere created a legend as mendacious as it was headline-grabbing: the legend of fan resistance that brought down the Super League.

On the one hand, the Super League lives on, in a kind of legal intermediate realm of lower instance, to which Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Juventus Turin cling.

On the other hand, and more importantly, the plans failed, not because the fans took to the streets, but because the organization, whose existence suddenly seemed in danger, forged a very large coalition: Aleksander Čeferin, President of the European Football Union UEFA, played Interests one-two with Emmanuel Macron, Boris Johnson and Vladimir Putin. The most important man in Čeferin's team, however, was Nasser Al-Khelaifi.

The day after the protest in front of Stamford Bridge, the President of Paris Saint-Germain, the tennis partner of the Emir of Qatar, whose minister is without a portfolio, the CEO of the Qatari sports network BeIN Sports, a member of the UEFA executive branch and the chairman of the ECA, the European Club Association. The Super League plans had a crucial flaw: Qatar was not in the game. The Super League was demonstrated in London, and it was won in Paris and Doha.

On Wednesday, almost four months later, Nasser Al-Khelaifi can present the trophy: Messi! Messi has left Barcelona. Messi is in Paris, the PSG supporters dance in front of the stadium - and bury the legend of the resistance of the base again. The Super League clubs had expected such a scenario from their idea. The man who stayed on UEFA's side can present it. And now Nasser Al-Khelaifi promises golden times. Shirt sales, image gain, advertising: Messi is here, Messi delivers, PSG cannot be stopped.

Qatar wins.

Al-Khelaifi can even afford to promise at the moment of triumph that the club will adhere to the rules suspended due to Corona, which have already been banished to the realm of undead regulations by the legal coup of competitor Manchester City before the CAS arbitration tribunal was: financial fair play.

A promise, almost as generous as the 4.3 million euros that BeIN transfers for each game transferred to the bland Ligue 1, in which Messi will now stretch his legs alongside Neymar and Mbappé before things get serious again in the Champions League.

Amazon, the other rights holder in France, pays 827,000 euros per game.

For the moment it seems decided: The power in European football lies to a large extent in Nasser Al-Khelaifi's hands.

It is in Qatar.