Michel Platini endlessly pontificates on the romantic nature of football, championing the small clubs, berating their larger, richer cousins. Chastising borrowers, criticising those who do not give youth a chance, all the while sitting in his Ivory Tower doing little or nothing to implement these policies, hamstrung by the committee structure that pervades UEFA, frustrated at every turn in his attempts to force a more egalitarian structure onto European football.

Last week’s outburst against Arsene Wenger, hastily retracted following a scolding from his father, suggests that Platini is a very frustrated man. Wenger in recent weeks had made comments that were befitting of a UEFA Chairman, observing that the new wealth in English football meant more vigilance had to be applied to funding sources and the new owners Modus Operandi in the transfer market, coupled with championing video technology to aide referees. Platini sat back, seething quietly until his barbed riposte.

In doing so, Platini proved to be an exceptionally frustrated man. He enthused about Cluj’s win in the Champions League, overcoming a goal deficit and Roman home advantage, proclaiming that it was proof of the beauty of football, of the romanticism that makes the game a worldwide spectacle. When results such as this happen, he claims that it is a reminder of how football used to be. Yet football has never been a safe haven for the minnows.

Scanning the list of winners of the UEFA’s flagship tournament, the fifty-one finals barely register any shock winners. Six winners could be classed as such but two-thirds of the tournaments have been won by ten clubs, hardly suggesting much romance.

Platini is a man caught in a trap; his role at UEFA brings great authority but little real power. It allows him to fuel his romantic notions but not to implement them. As a result, his frustration grows and explodes in erratic outbursts. It also manifests in a scattergun approach to targets, some hitting home, others are woefully chosen.

Prior to the Champions League final in Moscow, he lamented how the participants were those who were heavily indebted, buying success on credit that will never be repaid fully. Manchester United and Chelsea would argue that the success achieved validates their financial policies and as long as they are servicing those debts, where is the issue?

Problematically for Platini, UEFA is one of the root causes of that particular path being trodden. It is imperative for the top European clubs to participate in the Champions League, the rewards are simply too great for them not to. UEFA know this to be the case yet they will not act upon it nor will they publicly acknowledge it. The dichotomy has simple solutions but these will not be implemented. In the end, the Champions League is killing European club competition.

The European Cup Winners Cup fell by the wayside in the 1990s, attention diverted by stronger UEFA and Champions Cup competitions; the former is heading for the oblivion. The strength of the tournament had been the participation of stronger clubs, finishing in the top for of their leagues. Now they are in the Champions League. Ham-fisted reorganisations of the UEFA Cup have led to a shambolic structure that had a group stage that served little purpose.

Once more UEFA have re-branded the competition, a replica of the Champions League, entitled ‘The Europa League’. It will not grab the attention for long, as the sub-standard nature of the matches does not attract the revenue from sponsors with no surprise being registered if the tournament ceases to exist in the next decade.

Masters of their own Universe, UEFA are proving to be the seeds of their own destruction. The removal of the knockout element of their tournaments has proven financially successful but from a sporting point of view, it has killed the spectacle. Seedings have further diminished the competitive element. Even before a ball has been kicked, at least twelve of the sixteen participants of the knockout phase of the Champions League can be successfully listed. Unless Platini manipulates the tournament further, very soon the elite will be the only ones who matter on a continental scale.