You can laugh at a Super League, but the reason the CL is the way it is is because of the threat of a breakaway Super League.

If UEFA hadn't repeatedly bent over it wouldn't look anything like it does now, and that's because of the threat of a breakaway:

- letting in runners up from 1997

- letting in the top four from the top three countries from 2000

- letting the third placed side from the top three countries directly into the group stages from 2008

- letting the Europa League winner into the group stages from 2015

- letting the fourth placed side from the fourth ranked country into the competition from 2018

- letting the fourth placed side from the top four countries directly into the group stages from 2018

Every single format change over the last twenty five years has been to the benefit of the big clubs. Even the elimination of the second group stage was arguably to their advantage, because of the fixture congestion it was causing and the fact it allowed the season to start a week later, allowing for more lucrative round the world pre-season tournaments.

If the changes hadn't happened, there'd have been a breakaway by now. The top clubs have all the leverage and still aren't happy. I can't say I blame them: every time they go to UEFA looking for more, they get it! If you had an ATM that kept giving you money for free, wouldn't you keep going back and asking for more. I'm not saying I disagree that the clubs would soon realise a breakaway league is a bad thing but for so long as UEFA keep bending over at the threat of it, the more the big clubs are going to get from UEFA over it.

There is one thing though: UEFA is a 55 member organisation and it depends on those 55 votes for a lot of major decisions. There was a period in the early 2000s when the champions of the lowest countries didn't get into the Champions League. That was changed back; I can't see any format change actually expressly eliminating those sides. Any format will always have to be constrained by a requirement to keep open a path for clubs from lower ranked nations, otherwise it won't pass UEFA. They know that it is a cash cow and they have to keep the money flowing, but at a certain stage, if money isn't flowing to the smaller countries, or even the chance of it, there might be enough members in UEFA who are happy to let the big clubs go. Given the hit UEFA would take over that though, I can't see the actual institution of UEFA allowing that to happen readily, which is why I think we're more likely to see minor changes from where we are at the minute. The more top level clubs admitted (say fifth, sixth and seventh from the top three countries), the fewer clubs from smaller nations admitted, and I can't see many of the lower associations being happy with that. It's a hard sell to them as it is, and UEFA seem to have found a balance most of them are happy with.

It would all depend on the set up. I suppose at the minute you have the following:

- the drama of a race for national titles (and cups), giving the top two or three sides drama every season

- the drama of a race for top four in national leagues, giving the sides from third to seventh drama every season

- the (lesser) drama of seeing whether teams will get out of the group stage of the Champions League

- the drama of Champions League knockout football

Having numerous competitions and various different qualification groups sets things up in a way there is a degree of manufactured uncertainty - it is possible you'd lose that with a Super League. Now, it depends on the set up of a Super League - if you had one with regional divisions, like the NFL, and end of season playoffs, like the Champions League has, you could still have a degree of drama. For example, say there were 32 clubs in 4 divisions of 8 clubs, and each side played each the teams in each other division once and those in their own division twice (that's 38 games). You could then have first in each group making the quarter finals, and second and third playing off in a last sixteen round. That is only an example of course, but the level of uncertainty and drama that the current system allows could equally be replicated in a Super League, especially if they have a relegation system (don't bank on that though).

That is it in a nutshell. There may never be a 'super' league now as I can the CL eventually being a closed shop, it is close to it now. There are only 12-14 clubs that can win it and most of them are in the last 16. Logically you would have to imagine it is having an impact on the group stages; how many surprises are there in that 16? David Conn wrote an article about the growing gap between the best and the rest and mentioned that the number of four goal(and more) hammerings is rising in the competition year on year. I think he said there is twice the likelihood of such a hammering in the CL as in the EPL.