Has European football sold its soul?

The four champions league finalists are Manchester City, Paris San Germain, Chelsea and Real Madrid.

The first two clubs are literally owned by Gulf states with awful human rights records. Chelsea, the original oligarch team, are the possession of a corrupt Russian billionaire friend of Putin.

That leaves Real Madrid, the plucky underdog once described as the 'best embassy Spain ever had.' This was when Spain was run by Franco's dictatorship.

Unless you have massive money, you cant compete at the highest level and some of that money comes from some seriously dodgy places.

Next season, there will be more Champions League games as the groups are expanded. Which means more predictability and less drama. Crucially it means more guaranteed income for the biggest clubs.

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Nomad7 · 22-25, M

Bayern won the last UCL and Liverpool before that. Madrid won 3 in a row before that, Barcelona were previous. And Madrid didn't win dogshit during their galactico era

It's the first time that it's dominated by big spending clubs. And Man City aren't just the money, Pep is the best manager in the world, arguably the greatest coach ever.
PSG are all about money, but they won't reach the final

Burnley123 · 41-45, M

@Nomad7 I dunno how Real Madrid and Bayern don't count as big spending.

Of course Pep is a brilliant coach but im talking about something else. There is no way on earth he would have gone to the old Man City and no way he would have won anything if he had.