THE UEFA Champions League draw has become an event in itself and provides a curtain-raiser to the next 10 months of action involving Europe’s elite working their way towards the final stages. For half of the entrants, the competition will end in December, but we can expect the usual suspects to qualify for the knockout stages when things really do get interesting. While the Champions League will prove attractive from the perspective of delivering an absorbing spectacle, attracting big crowds and mass media interest, the real cachet of the competition for most of the participants is the potential financial rewards. For some of the smaller clubs, the Champions League cash provides them with differentiating income that can give them an advantage in their domestic…