Champions League: Frugality can win in billion-dollar sport

The Champions League, the world’s toughest club football tournament, started this week. And what a week it has been. On Tuesday, Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat trick in Istanbul, as his team hammered the Turkish champions. A day later, Lionel Messi, surely the most skilled player in the game today, proved that he was no less. In front of an adulatory crowd at home in Barcelona, Messi also followed up with a hat trick against the Dutch champions, Ajax. Aided with another headed goal from defender Pique, companion of popstar Shakira, Barcelona easily won 4-0.

But even these events may not have been the most remarkable things to have happened on Wednesday. What topped them was the fact that a Swiss team, playing in England, beat last year’s European champion Chelsea 2-1. It was all the more remarkable because Basel, a sturdy team, had played in England 10 times before, and lost every time. Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich pours millions of dollars into its players and coaches every year: only one player, Fernando Torres, was bought for $80 million last year. And he wasn’t even fielded in the match. On the other hand, Basel is a team assembled almost out of thin air. In the world of billion-dollar football, it is exhilarating to watch the occasional triumph of frugality.