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It was my ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ cameraman, Phil Gregory, who astutely summed up , president of Real Madrid FC. As we left the dining suite on the 11th floor of his office in the Spanish capital, Phil said to me: "You know what, Senor Perez is the nearest to a statesman as I have seen in football. He has that bearing."

Now Senor Perez has been called many things - for one, he has been accused of destroying football and distorting the transfer market with the obscene amounts of money he throws around to secure the services of the world's best footballers - but a "statesman"? Is that not a bit rich?

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is rarely in Great Britain for long, so to get him on his own, and especially talking about sport, is something of an event.

But there I was with him on the 0900 train to - the quiet train as he recalled it from his days as an MP when he regularly took it to return to his .

This Friday was anything but quiet. We had no sooner left King's Cross, London, when , his former home secretary, slid into the seat next to him.

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Sport as a metaphor for life is an overworked cliche.

For many years I dined out on great saying that if everything about England was destroyed except for the laws of cricket, life in this country could be recreated. I am not sure if even Cardus would advance that position today.

Sport like all social activities reflects life but may not tell much about how to live it.

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