The question of whether the Champions League devalues the Premier League has been discussed at just about every level in the game.

It's been on the go ever since the introduction of the Champions League, which came into existence to prevent a break-away European Super League. Back in the early 90s, AC Milan and others threatened the UEFA European Cup with a breakaway league.

This was based on a study showing the potential for significant revenue potential from TV and commercial sources. In a bid to keep the clubs under a UEFA format the Champions League was created. The European Super League never materialised, and is unlikely ever to happen.

'The European Super League never materialised, and is unlikely ever to happen'


However, shouldn’t the idea be that you prove yourself at various levels before progressing to higher levels, in reward for sporting excellence? Therefore, if you prove yourselves to be the best team in the domestic league, should the right to prove yourselves the best in Europe be a privilege for domestic title holders only? Personally, I think the fact that you can win the league and then have a fourth-placed domestic team win the Champions League makes a mockery of the whole set-up.

The consequences of having the top three or four teams in arguably Europe's best league qualifying for the Champions League has a massive effect on the quality of domestic competition. Because players put so much emphasis on competing in the Champions League, they are unwilling to consider moving to other clubs outside this elite group. As a consequence, an elite group of clubs is created in the domestic league, which makes competition almost non-existent.

For all the hype of the Premier League, it has become predictable and almost sterile. The fact that it is now possible for teams in England to go through a season unbeaten proves the quality of the league overall is less in terms of healthy competition.

If the old format of "champions only" for the Champions League was restored we could see interesting examples of top-quality players playing for clubs with lesser prestige. For example, could fringe players like Michael Ballack, Andriy Shevchenko, Eduardo Da Silva, Theo Walcott, Louis Saha and Ryan Babel choose to move to teams such as Everton, Aston Villa or even abroad to Napoli or Sevilla, for example? They would probably consider this, because knowing that only one domestic team could compete in the Champions League would result in spreading the talent across more clubs.

Another example might be if clubs like Newcastle, Dortmund, Napoli or Sevilla signed a couple of top players. This would possibly encourage bigger names to those clubs in the belief that they might become challengers for the domestic title, despite having less prestige. The consequence of this could be a transfer frenzy amongst all the other clubs who were not champions in a bid to become the challenger.

An established pattern in the transfer market is that top players are attracted to the clubs where the best players generally are, or are competing in the Champions League.  With only one team playing in the Champions League domestic teams could have more of an equal chance of breaking up the group of elite clubs.