Don Julio keeps the clubs in toe because they should actually all be playing in third division due to their financial woes... yet he buys their allegiance by not enforcing the AFA rules.

The ship's company had been lining the quarterdeck, the gangways and the forecastle for some time, standing along the appointed seams in the deck while the midshipmen fussed about them, trying to make them stand upright, keep in order and toe the line, tweaking neckerchiefs, lanyards, hat-ribbons.