IT is hard to escape the depressing conclusion that those operating at football’s top level believe nothing happened in the sport before 1992.

That was the year which gave birth to the Champions League and English Premiership. It remains the beautiful game’s year zero for too many deeply involved in how the show is being run.

Do you think anyone involved in the new BT Sport television deal which means the European Cup, as some of us traditionalists still call it, know the names of Jacques Ferran and Jacques de Ryswick, two long retired French football journalists who are now in their nineties?

It was they along with a former footballer, the late Gabriel Hanot, who are credited for inventing the competition. UEFA at the time didn’t see the value in the idea, even back then the association filled itself with fools, but with the help of L’Equipe the first European Cup Final took place in 1956 when Real Madrid began their era of dominance with a 4-3 win over Stade de Reims in Paris.

If you had told those three wise gentleman back then that their baby would still be kicking and screaming in the year 2017, it could be said with some confidence that such visionaries would guess more than a few changes would have taken place.

Whether any of them, and it would be fascinating, if possible, to speak with Ferran and De Ryswick, would be happy with how things have turned out is doubtful.

The name “Champions League” has long been a misnomer and next year it will become even more of a closed shop, and one at that which could make Harrods appear like the local Poundstretchers having a sale.

Celtic didn’t even have to win a group game to make the best part of £30m.

From August 2018, the group stage will be a monopoly, there is no other word for it, between England, Spain, Germany and Italy, as they will get half of the 32 places on offer. The champions of countries such as Scotland, plus the likes of Holland and Belgium, face an even mightier task just to qualify.

And now 90 per cent of the games will be on satellite. Not even brief highlights will be available on free-to-air television, which before SKY and now BT Sport got their hands on it was where everyone was able to watch football’s greatest club competition.

Essentially what UEFA and their partners are saying is; ‘If you are from one of those small countries we don’t really think about and you can’t afford or simply don’t want satellite television, then the Champions League isn't for you.’

How did we get here?

Actually, one of the major answers to how we got here is the offensive amounts of money being ploughed into English football, which has meant the likes of Stoke City can outbid Inter Milan in the transfer market.

This was never going to be allowed to stand and, therefore, UEFA was pressurised into changes by the bigger clubs of Spain, Germany and Italy. You can see it from their point of view; however, that doesn’t make any of this right.

The English Premier League’s recent £9bn television deal set off alarm bells in boardrooms all across Europe. The top teams, led by European Clubs Association chairman and Bayern Munich chief executive, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, threatened a walkout if the changes didn’t go through.

Who cares if it’s fair? Who cares if it’s within the spirit of football? Who cares if it is going to stop well-run clubs improving because they keep missing out on the group stage? Not those in charge, that’s for sure.

It is a great irony that in a time when FIFA are bending backwards to make the World Cup more accessible, and UEFA have done the same with the European Championships which suffered last summer from an increase of teams from 16 to 24, that the Champions League is becoming even more elitist.

Football used to be the working man’s game. Now it’s only for the privileged few. Arsenal may have done nothing of real note in Europe for over a decade, and not won their own league for 13 years, the reason why the vast majority of that club’s supporters want Arsene Wenger sacked, and yet a formulaic top-four finish gains them entry to the football’s VIP lounge.

The Champions League in recent years has grown stale. The same teams play at the same stage and, more often than not, the same winners emerge. The shake-up being brought in, however, is a far cry from what is actually needed.

BT Sport are actually fine broadcasters. After an understandable slow start, their coverage is excellent, not only in Europe, but here in Scotland as well. The spats between Chris Sutton and Stephen Craigan have been wonderfully entertaining pantomime.

However, we do get highlights on ITV, where Roy Keane is unmissable, and occasional live matches. The Premiership coverage is also spread across BT and Sky so there isn’t a monopoly.

Now one broadcaster calls the shots, which is never a good thing, we all have to pay almost all the time to watch a game, and the entire competition is now set-up to make already ridiculous clubs even richer.

It is hard to believe this is what miss?rus Ferran, De Ryswick and Hanot had in mind.