Some Rules May Change, but Fair Play Shouldn't LONDON - Florentino Pérez bases his presidency of Real Madrid on the pledge to restore the team to its former reputation as the grandest in global sports. Nobody knows what vision Sheik Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan holds for Manchester City, into which his family has poured a billion dollars since 2008. Pérez watches everything Real Madrid does and is answerable to the club's 80,000 members, who vote for the president. Sheik Mansour is like a sphinx to Manchester. He once watched a game in City's home ground - now known as the Etihad Stadium. One assumes that what Pérez and Mansour do not want is to be seen to hire thugs in their lineups. Yet Madrid's Portuguese defender, Pepe, and City striker Mario Balotelli stand accused of being precisely that. Last Wednesday, Pepe trod on the hand of Barcelona's Lionel Messi during a King's Cup match at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid. Last Sunday, Balotelli kicked a Tottenham player, Scott Parker, in the head as Parker lay on the ground. The question of intent is as hard to prove in sports as it is in courts of law. But because both Pepe and Balotelli have previous cases of apparent malice on the soccer field, and because television cameras cover these incidents from a multitude of angles, every viewer in the world has an opinion. Pepe said, on Madrid's in-house television station 24 hours after the event, that his stomp on Messi was "an involuntary act." Balotelli has until 6 p.m. Wednesday to say something in his defense, or else accept the English Football Association's four-match ban, which would imply guilt on his part. The inertia of the Spanish authorities, and the swift charge by the English F.A., illustrates how much the soccer overlords are at a loss to understand the modern millionaires who, for better and for worse, are admired and mimicked by youngsters the world over. Real Madrid's stated intention - to regain its stature as the first among soccer institutions - is intrinsically bound to the money it makes. And that is tied to the brand it inculcates from Asia to the Americas, through its star players" performance. City is a new phenomenon, a lovely, homely, century-old club that lived in the shadow of its all powerful neighbor, United, until the sheik came along. Humbled City shed its clothes and became Abu Dhabi City. It is the club that outspends every other - be it American-owned United, Russian-revamped Chelsea, or Barcelona, Real Madrid or Milan. The fiscal rules have changed. But until now, the rules of fair play still stand. Real's president has remained silent about Pepe. The Spanish F.A. is led by Ángel María Villar, who was once a very competitive Bilbao player, and who is currently the senior man in FIFA and UEFA on refereeing matters. Villar's Spanish committee banned Pepe in 2009 after he behaved like a hoodlum during a match against Getafe. Pepe had knocked over an opponent from behind, trampled on him as he lay on the grass, shoved his hand into another player's face and menaced the referee. He was given a 10-game suspension. Its effect was transient because, in this season alone, Pepe has been caught elbowing a Sevilla opponent in the face and kicking a Levante player on the ground. His coach, and fellow Portuguese national, José Mourinho, told reporters he had not seen Pepe's latest misdemeanor. "Obviously," said Mourinho, "if it is intentional, it is punishable." Obviously. Mourinho knows, and Madrid fans know only too well, that intent is nigh on impossible to prove. You cannot, the coach insisted, call Pepe a liar. Pepe's carefully crafted Madrid TV appearance was short on remorse. "With regard to the play involving Leo Messi," he said, "it was an involuntary act. It never goes through my head to harm a fellow professional.