Is the Champions League changing?

Looking at the groups for this season's Champions League tournament you might think that it's business as usual for the main contenders from England, Spain and Italy.

There's no denying that Barcelona, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Manchester United and the two Milan teams once again feature among the favourites, but if you look again a few of the usual suspects are missing and the Champions League appears to finally be fulfilling Uefa boss Michel Platini's ambition for the competition to become just a little more open, democratic and, dare I say it, exciting and unpredictable.

Liverpool an Porto both champions league winners in the last decade are in the europa league, joining the flawed italian giants Juventus who have been finalists three times in Europe's top tournament since they last won the trophy in 1996.

Further down the pecking order Borussia Dortmund, PSV Eindhoven and Olympiakos also didn't make the group stages of the continent's biggest club competition this time around.

Only a dozen of the teams that made the group stages last season, including Barca, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Manchester United and the two Milan teams, have done it again 12 months later.

There are six teams including Portugal's Braga, Dutch champions Twente as well as Spurs who are appearing at this stage of the competition for the very first time while England is the only country to have four teams still in contention.

This year, 18 countries are represented among the 32 teams at this stage, meaning that while the likes of FC Copenhagen will be gallantly flying the flag for Denmark, and aiming just to nick a few points off the next weakest member of their groups, namely Panathinaikos and Spartak Moscow, there is every chance of a few unusual names cropping up in the last 16.

I'm not suggesting for one minute that they can go all the way and inherit the trophy Jose Mourinho's Inter lifted in May but I'm quietly wondering what teams like Braga and Tottenham can do in the first attempt in this competition.

Braga looked impressive in eliminating Celtic and then Sevilla to get their place in a group alongside Arsenal, Shakhtar Donetsk and Partizan Belgrade.

It has been six years since Porto won the Champions League so maybe it's time for another good run from a Portuguese team.

Last season Inter pocketed nearly £41m from Uefa alone after winning the Champions League, and that was before local tickets sales or the boost from merchandising were considered. Surprise finalists Bayern got just £4 million less than Inter.

With the Champions League Starting tonight with Manchester United Vs Rangers it will be interesting to see if it will be the European giants or Michel Platini's minnows that will start their European campaign with a win.