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UEFA Super League: 2020 Champions League a glimpse into European football's future

This season offers a glimpse into the future of European club football.

Not a single team in the last 16 of the Champions League hails from outside of the big five European top flights in England, Spain, Italy, Germany or France.

While teams from the most traditionally competitive leagues will naturally find themselves in the latter stages, a smattering of representatives from countries such as Portugal, Netherlands and Russia have always appeared in the final phases of the Champions League, with occasional bolters from places like Cyprus, Greece or Denmark.

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But that's not the case in 2019-20's VIP knockout rounds.

As UEFA's flagship tournament gradually evolves into a European Super League, featuring the same old faces and enriching the same gilded society of elite clubs, it is striking that such a reality has been met with barely a whimper.

That's because this elite club status quo has been a long time coming.

Back in 1992-93, the first year of the modern Champions League era, the last 16 was truly pan-continental, involving the league champions of 16 different countries. 

Three decades later and the spread of representation has been reduced by two thirds at the same point. It makes for a startling contrast.

Various tweaks to the format of the European Cup since the 1990s have all been geared towards concentrating the perceived quality of the participants, which can be sold to media organisations and advertisers at a higher price.

أياكس يحتفل بدوري الأبطال عام 1995

And now we are approaching the logical conclusion of that financially driven engineering.

The fact that UEFA has been looking over its shoulder at the prospect of clubs - led by the European Club Association (ECA) - forming an elite breakaway tournament of their own has helped to accelerate the metamorphosis. 

In order to quell the threat of a rival competition coming into existence, the ECA was brought inside the tent and, in 2019, a  'memorandum of understanding', which "puts the ECA at the heart of UEFA's decision-making process", was extended until 2024.  

SeasonCountries were represented in Champions League last 16 in the last decade
2019-20England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain (5)
2018-19England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain (7)
2017-18England, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine (9)
2016-17England, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain (6)
2015-16Belgium, England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Ukraine (10)
2014-15England, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine (8)
2013-14England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Russia, Spain, Turkey (8)
2012-13England, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Ukraine, Turkey (9)
2011-12Cyprus, England, France, Germany, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Switzerland (8)
2010-11Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Ukraine (7)

More format changes are expected in the coming years, though it remains to be seen what form they will take.

There has been talk of expanding the number of teams in the Champions League and of increasing the number of games.

As well as that, rewarding semi-finalists with automatic qualification to the following year's tournament has been touted as a way of providing a pathway for smaller teams who enjoy an unexpected run.

The creation of a new third-tier club tournament - the Europa Conference League - which begins in 2021, would appear to be preparing the wider club base for the next phase of their continental club competition overhaul.

Whether it's called the European Super League or the Champions League is rebranded is unknown.

But it's clear that UEFA is creating space for those leagues on the periphery, who can no longer aspire to reach the Champions League knockout rounds and who wouldn't feature in a Super League.

Considering UEFA has cultivated such a highly lucrative enterprise in the form of the modernised Champions League, it will be keen to protect their cash cow as much as possible.

This elite version of European Super League-style football is here to stay.

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