Kings of Europe no more

Back in the 70s, Dad and I used to tune into Radio 2, medium wave, from two minutes past eight on Wednesday evenings, to listen to the English Champions, usually Liverpool, play in Europe.

The European Cup, as was.

Either from Anfield, or from some place in Europe we could only guess what it looked like, but the calm tones of Bryon Butler would describe the games as Liverpool would score and control the rest of the game to win.

We would listen to it on the family radiogram, with the signal fading in and out in thanks to dodgy reception on medium wave. Liverpool would play Borussia Mönchengladbach, Sparta Prague or some team from Russia or wherever.

When Liverpool failed to win the European Cup, then Nottingham Forest or Aston Villa did. An endless stream of success.

Whenever an English, Scottish or Welsh team played, we cheered them on. The teams and clubs were clearly English, filled with mostly English players, who would also play for the national side.

Fast forward to the 21st century, and the bright new world of the Premier League and Champions League, not only Champions take part in the premier competition, but runners up, even teams that finished third or forth could qualify, thus making a mockery of the name, Champions League. Clubs are owned by billionaires or oild-rich Arab states, using the club and sports for washing their blood-soaked reputations.

Clubs might play in England with their traditional names and even in their tradional home grounds, but everything else has changed.

English clubs have used the monies from revenues of the PL and CL to hoover up the best players, leaving little to chance, and leaving most of the Eureopean game long behind. On more than one occasion, three out of the four semi-finalists were English clubs.

Domminance of the sport seemed assured.

In order to cement their domminance, domestic competitions were messed around with, replays scrapped as well as extra time in some cases, so to make the biggest clus with their bloated squads have the best chance to win in Europe.

This is not now enough for the biggest clubs. The FA is to be reduced, replays scrapped in that too, even when the big clubs are not taking part. Monies that those clubs in the CL make no longer filters down the football pyramid, instead it is shared with other big clubs, or spent in agent's fees.Last year the PL clubs spent nearly half a billion pounds on agents fees alone.

THese clubs no longer feel English and their ongoing success seems to be divorced from those who support mere mortal clubs. Whether Citeh win the CL or not matters not a jot to me or my club.

This week, four out of the five remaining PL clus in the three European competitions were knocked out, including Man City and Arsenal in the CL, liverpool knocked out by a team they scuttled out 5-0 three years back.

I no longer cheer for English clubs in Europe, as the televised games are behind a paywall I'm not prepared to pay for, It matters far less. Until the money that the big clubs earn and expect the rest of the game to facilitate filters back down the leagues, I will largly ignore them.

They matter not a jot.