“For almost a century, money and soccer lived an uneasy relationship. Teams scraped by on modest sponsorships and reliable but not cosmic TV deals. They competed for players, but dollars and cents arms races were rare. Then came the Galácticos. If the Bosman ruling allowed the snake of commerce into Football’s Garden of Eden, then Florentino Perez swallowed an entire barrel of apples without thought. Looking back, a Madrid fan doesn’t feel vindicated by the trophies. Rather, he or she wonders how they won anything at all.” The Equaliser