Philosophic-historical truths confer Juventus as winner of 2018/2019 UEFA Champions League Opeyemi Adeyemi One natural occurrence that has greatly affected man in recent times has been the volcanic eruptions of 2010 in Iceland. The Eyjafjallajokul as it is called released ashes into the skies of Europe on the 14th of April. This eruption caused a massive disruption in flights coming into and out of Europe with the closure of several airports. Several thousands of flights were reported to have been cancelled leaving millions of passengers stranded across the world. Little did many know that the Eyjafjallajokul was an occurrence whose object was the first leg semifinal match between FC Barcelona of Spain and Inter Milan of Italy. The volcanic eruption made the former its target with the aim to wear them out and create an advantage for the home side. The first leg was scheduled in Italy and given the busy soccer calendar the match had to go ahead as planned. The constraints of time meant the visitors had to go by road to Milan, a journey that had psychological consequences of fatigue for the travelling team. The result was that Barcelona lost the match and was eliminated from the competition. Eyjafjallajokul happened primarily for historical reasons. Its cause, the mover of the eruptions was however philosophical. The historical factor behind this event had already been fleshed out in the paper The Philosophy of the UEFA Champions League. The philosophical aspect had been thoroughly detailed in my book The Philosophy of the Cosmos. According to The Philosophy of the Cosmos, the origins of the universe started when incorporeal entities called the abstracts imparted their force into some stuff of the material universe. The abstracts are spirit, soul, air, mind, consciousness, reason and ideas. The objects brought into existence are cosmic bodies, plants, animals and man. These constitute the real. There is also the material which are rocks, mountains etc. Therefore the cosmos is categorized into the abstract, the real and the material. These abstracts that caused the evolution and its objects continue to subsist in them. In The Philosophy of the UEFA Champions League, those abstracts that still form part of the universe developed with man, specific traits or characteristics owing to certain circumstances in the past. For example the people of Ijebu Ode acquired the traits of intelligence, organization and commercial enterprise owing to centuries of maneuvering with non-military options for their survival. Those traits of intelligence have become fixed and permanent even when the people are no longer engaged in those activities that engendered the traits. The point where the activities lead to these traits is the metaphysic. This is where the traits begin to flow naturally continuing the generational transfer that those activities too, passed through. 2 In Europe's premier club competition, the decades of existence of the European Cup represents the centuries of Ijebu Ode's maneuvering for survival with non-military options while the UEFA Champions League is the fixed, permanent and irreversible period of the developed traits of intelligence and organization of the Ijebu Ode people. The introduction of the UEFA Champions League in 1992 is the metaphysic point of the European Cup era of 1956 to 1992. For the UEFA Champions League the metaphysic formed is based on the historical antecedents of the participating leagues and clubs. It is based on historical precedence. This rule first started to take shape in 2000 when La liga leveled Serie A and Premier League for its 9th European silverware. The rule formally came into effect in 2002 when La liga won its 10 European cup. From that year till date, neither have Serie A moved ahead of La liga nor did Premier League leapfrog Serie A. This was exactly the reason why Eyjafjallajokul released its ashes into European airspace in 2010. Real Madrid was the first club to win the European Cup in 1956. It won the trophy consecutively for five years. No other club in European football has ever managed a feat near this. FC Barcelona won the trophy once in the European Cup era. The club lagged teams like Bayern Munich and Liverpool that achieved trebles in the European Cup. In 2009 FC Barcelona won the UEFA Champions League. About 6 months later, the club had claimed all the trophies it competed for. Thus in 2010 Guardiola's men set about the task of becoming the first club side to retain it. It was this objective of Barcelona that caused the Eyjafjallajokul to spew ashes into the skies. Eyjafjallajokul happened because of the message underlying the rule of precedence which for Barcelona reads Ye Cannot Be At Present What Thou Has Not Been in the Past. The import of this message is that Barcelona doesn't have the pedigree to defend the cup. That only Real Madrid possessed such pedigree. Therefore only Madrid which boasts that pedigree in Europe could accomplish such a feat. Hence, the eruption of the volcano. What Barcelona tried and failed to accomplish from 2010 to 2012 was what Real Madrid attempted and succeeded with from 2016 to 2018. Barcelona encountered obstacles not in Inter Milan and Chelsea who were merely the instruments of execution but in Real Madrid. That Barcelona failed collectively with their managerial acumen, team ethic and exceptional talents all in their prime while, Real Madrid, at the last round of its consecutive treble, successfully blazed past all its knockout stage opponents with the aid of a highly consistent string of fortunes never enjoyed by any club else in recorded history tells the entire tale: the woes of Barcelona and triumph of Madrid were contrived and planned. One inexplicable match result at the 2017/2018 season which had an indirect influence on Real Madrid's eventual victory was the 3-0 thumping of Barcelona in Rome. AS Roma's dumping of FC Barcelona out of the 2017/2018 Champions League helped prevent a possible clash with Real Madrid which could have resulted in an almost certain defeat for the eventual champions. 3 This elimination by Roma also has far greater implications for Barcelona in the near future. The Rome defeat meant that Liverpool escaped a possible meeting with Barcelona. The resurgence and appearance of Liverpool in the finals portends a worrisome development for Barcelona. Given that on head to head basis, Liverpool won the last contest in season 2006/2007's first series of knockout ties, therefore, Barcelona would have had a semifinal clash with Liverpool at her advantage. The issue which the Roma victory and the emergence of Liverpool has brought to light is that the problems that Barcelona confronted from 2010 to 2012 and which caused the Eyjafjallajokul to create an advantage for Inter Milan is about to rear its ugly head once more. The fact is Liverpool and Barcelona are currently on five European titles apiece. Together with Bayern Munich, this trio constitutes three of the teams that have won five titles at the highest level in European football. Liverpool and Bayern Munich achieved trebles out of their quintuple in the European Cup era. Both of them had golden eras of club football that predate Barcelona's. The English and German clubs have a pedigree that Barcelona doesn't possess and cannot boast of. Real Madrid, too, had its golden era at its inception that predates all the clubs. The precedence of Real Madrid's golden era was the factor behind why Barcelona failed to flourish in Europe from 2009 to 2012 as did Madrid from 2014 to 2018. With Liverpool and Bayern Munich now on queue for European glory, Barcelona is about to face the exact situation of 2010 when Eyjafjallajokul unleashed itself on Europe. Barcelona's problems in Europe are mainly with Liverpool and Bayern Munich. These are the obstacles to the Catalan's success in Europe. The rule of precedence at the club level means Barcelona will lag Liverpool and Bayern Munich for its 6th European title. But, at the league level, the Serie A and Premier League are currently tied at 12 European silverwares apiece which means Juventus will be the first to achieve European glory, to be followed by Liverpool afterwards. However being in the position to win ahead of Liverpool, Juventus still faces formidable opposition from the reigning champions. This threat though has been put out with the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo. The case of Ronaldo suffices for how man could in a peculiar situation through sustained activity, acquire the metaphysic necessary for extraordinary accomplishments. Ronaldo accepted the challenge created as a result of the Messi comparison over who was the best in the world. To this end, he crossed over to Spain in the summer of 2009 to prove he is the better player. Remember the 40 goals of his debut in Spanish top-flight. After years of intensified rivalry he would actually acquire the powers that will be the force behind 4 Champions League titles under 5 years. 4 No longer at Real Madrid, Ronaldo's exit has created a vacuum, metaphysically with which he charged Real Madrid's European Cup pedigree in recent years. And he will soon be deploying this metaphysical force soonest at Turin where there is a strong Serie A pedigree of the European Cup which Juventus currently rides on. When Ronaldo's metaphysical force combines with Serie A's historical antecedents, a spark that will create the necessary impetus for glory in 2019 will be lit. It is this combination of philosophical and historical factors that will ease Juventus past its opponents in the 2018/2019 edition of the Champions League. Besides Real Madrid, the coming years is of importance to fans, administrators, players and coaches of PSG, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Manchester City and Juventus in the UEFA Champions League. It is important to clubs that are yearning for continental glory. The coming years, too, particularly the next three is of great importance to metaphysics and philosophy. Using the Champions League as laboratory, the course of the next three editions will help prove that metaphysics is a global phenomenon. That it exists in reality; that there are metaphysical forces in the universe; that the Eyjafjallajokul and Grimsvotn both occurred at the instigation of and as a consequence of communication between the metaphysic forces in the world; that both volcanic eruptions had Barcelona as their object; that the metaphysic forces of Champions League never wanted Barcelona to win the 2011 edition and; that the order of Juventus, Liverpool and to some extent Bayern Munich as victors of the Champions League that are all yet to kickoff, with FC Barcelona having to queue behind them before its next continental glory, will help substantiate the fact that the Eyjafjallajokul had the Catalan giants as its main target. Opeyemi Adeyemi is the author of The Philosophy of the UEFA Champions League andThe Philosophy of the Cosmos.