Before today's long-anticipated clash (and Predyx @mega_dreamer betting mania!), Simon Kuper has a nice, beautifully laid-out piece about cities and European football developments. We know Boomers screwed Europe (#1499251) -- and it's a museum anyway -- Britain's only growth industry is football (and porn)... and PSG is the story of how suburban dream met Qatari money.

In Saturday’s final, PSG meet Arsenal of north London. I’ve spent most of my life in Paris and London, and watched their football identities expand and change. This is, as they say, a tale of two cities.

"Compared with other regions, London football lacked tradition. The English professional game developed in the north and Midlands, and no southern team won the league until Arsenal in 1931. Football clubs tend to matter less in capital cities.""Compared with other regions, London football lacked tradition. The English professional game developed in the north and Midlands, and no southern team won the league until Arsenal in 1931. Football clubs tend to matter less in capital cities."

Football mattered even less in Paris, where I arrived in 2002. PSG then were a terrible team, supported largely by violent cretins, ignored by most Parisians. Wearing a team shirt outdoors meant social death. You could spend your life in Paris without knowing that football existed. PSG “will never become the focus of Parisian pride”, Stefan Szymanski and I wrote in our book Soccernomics.

Even by 2011, London, Paris, Berlin, Rome and Moscow had won a total of zero Champions Leagues. Provincial cities like Manchester, Liverpool, Barcelona and Milan dominated European football.

Why is that??

Maybe talent gets sucked elsewhere in the big cities, too many distractions/tempting options to pursue. I remember flying over Manchester recently (in winter, at night) and it was the regular vista of dimly lit houses and sprawling motorways and LIT-UP football pitches _everywhere_. From my plane window I counted probably a dozen within sight... was astonishing. Like yup, _football is a big thing here_

Different life now:

London clubs charge England’s highest ticket prices. Europe’s 10 richest clubs, as ranked by business advisory firm Deloitte, now include five from capitals: Real Madrid, PSG, Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs. Money buys trophies. In 2012, Chelsea won London’s first Champions League. PSG finally triumphed last year, thumping Inter Milan 5-0. On Saturday, the eighth capital team in 11 years will become European champions.

FIAT DESTROYED/RECREATED FOOTBALL IN ITS IMAGE?!

I dunno.

Nice piece, tho. Best of luck to the teams, I already locked-in my betting profits... just along for the show now

https://archive.md/wOLov