Both steps have been financially successful but instead of sating the big clubs the adjustments have merely increased their desire for

Both steps have been financially successful but, instead of sating the big clubs, the adjustments have merely increased their desire for a bigger share of the cake.Uefa’s leaders are now split between appeasing the big clubs and countries, which generate the wealth, and assisting the smaller ones who, in the corridors of Uefa and world body Fifa power, cumulatively have more votes.Compromise is in the offing. For newcomers to the party, like Kaiserslautern, Lens and Athletic Bilbao, this is the season to impress: they might be asked to stay.But by whom? Media Partners or Uefa? The latter, football’s European governing body, took over the competition in its second year and kept control until now, gradually giving concessions to the bigger clubs, most notably when they created the Champions’ League format in 1992 and then extended it to runners-up last season. They were chosen on reputation, not because they were champions.The following season – 1955-56 – 16 clubs staged the first competition, including Hibernian who had come only fifth in the Scottish League. Of that 16 only Real Madrid and PSV Eindhoven will be playing in the Champions’ League tonight. Milan, Sporting Lisbon and Anderlecht may come under consideration for a super league but most of the others – such as Stade Reims, Rot-Weiss Essen, Saarbrucken and Hibs – have long since declined.Defeating the transitory nature of success – and even Manchester United and Milan have been in their respective second divisions – is what the super league is all about. It is a fair assumption that, if the aim is to find the best team in Europe, it is more likely to be found in Italy than Estonia.

Why then, should Italy not have more representatives? Such a view does fit in with the competition’s original conception.Provoked by the claim of Stan Cullis, the manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers, that his club were the best in Europe Gabriel Hanot, the editor of the French sports newspaper L’Equipe, invited the representatives of leading European clubs to a meeting. Of the first wave of championship winners Uefa sent over the top back in July only two, HJK Helsinki and Dynamo Kiev, have survived to this stage. They join seven other champions, and seven clubs who were runners-up last year – including Manchester United, Internazionale and Bayern Munich.It would be churlish to deny that these appear bigger draws than the likes of Litex Lovech or Skonto Riga, to name two of the champions who perished in the qualifiers. All have a greater claim through achievement, resources and prestige to be part of such a league than Graz or Spartak but, unlike those two, they all failed to win a place on merit.It is hard enough already for the unfashionable and unwanted.

Yet they are involved in the sport’s richest club competition while Milan, Paris St-Germain, Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund and Marseilles are not.Those five clubs have been approached to join the European super league proposed by the Milan-based company, Media Partners. It is bad enough hosting a game in the 14,000-capacity Arnold Schwarzenegger-Stadion, what really embarrasses the Champions’ League is that Sturm Graz and Spartak Moscow are unwanted guests at the feast.Outside of their own borders the results of neither team would warrant a second glance. In the 1960s there were the Lisbon Lions and Best and Charlton’s joyous epitaph to the Munich disaster. The 70s, Cruyff and Beckenbauer, Liverpool and Forest, were followed by the 80s horror of Heysel Redemption came with a Dutch flourish at Milan and Ajax. It is this heritage, both glorious and tragic, that has made the European Cup the most prestigious club competition in the world. But everything has a price and, as the game hurtles towards the millennium on the accelerator of television’s riches, the competition’s soul is about to be sold.
Tonight, at a dozen stadiums from Porto to Athens, the European Cup, its classic format already bastardised and bloated, will begin its last stand.At Old Trafford it will do so with pride as Manchester United and Barcelona, two of the competition’s giants, do battle In Austria it will do so shame- facedly.

Also won: UEFA ‘78.Stars: Luc Nilis, Gilles de Bilde.SL verdict: Can Philips do a deal on the electrics? BORDERLINE.. IN THE 1950s it brought Di Stefano and Puskas, bewitching figures in white. Also won: ECWC ‘75, ‘86.Stars: Andrei Shevchenko, Sergei Rebrov.SL verdict: Only if we need a token team from the eastern bloc. BORDERLINE.LENS*Best EC: Debut.Stars: All gone, or injured.SL verdict: Someone tell Paris St-Germain not to let this happen again. OUT.PANATHINAIKOS (Q2)Best EC: Finalists ‘71.Stars: Asa Asanovic, Krzysztof Warzycha.SL verdict: If we need a Greek side, they’re in. BORDERLINE.GROUP FBENFICA (Q2)Best EC: Winners (2) ‘61, ‘62.Stars: Karel Poborsky, Brian Deane… enough said.SL verdict: Love the history, but not the poverty.

BORDERLINE.HJK HELSINKI (Q)Best EC: 2R.Stars: Piracaia.SL verdict: Don’t call us, we’ll call you. OUTKAISERSLAUTERN*Best EC: 2R.Stars: Ciriaco Sforza, Olaf Marschall.SL verdict: Do we have to invite the Bundesliga champions? BORDERLINE.PSV EINDHOVEN (Q2)Best EC: Winners ‘88. Also won: ECWC ‘94; UEFA ‘70.Stars: Dennis Bergkamp, Marc Overmars, the defence.SL verdict: Home games at Wembley, welcome aboard IN.DYNAMO KIEV (Q)Best EC: SF ‘77, ‘87. IN.BRONDBY (Q)Best EC: QF ‘87.Stars: Ebbe Sand.SL verdict: Nice city, so maybe for pre-season warm-ups OUT.MANCHESTER UNITED (Q2)Best EC: Winners ‘68. Also won: ECWC ‘91.Stars: Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Peter Schmeichel.SL verdict: Munich, Sir Matt and Murdoch We’ll screen game slive and exclusive – for a price IN.GROUP EARSENAL*Best EC: QF ‘72.