One subject that somewhat slipped attention after the start is that it's not just the spanish kids who carry their team's debts - the whole point of hoeness' jibe is that this is directly related to the competition, and directly makes it unfair. For, if the spanish government pays the debt (which they do; and as klaus rightly said - it's basically supported by the democracy), and then gets paid for a debt they cannot repay the Germans, who in their turn can afford to absorb that debt exactly because they are running their affairs decently and hoenesstly (had to), then this is a major piss off.
Another subject reflected in this thread is the inevitable tension in which football (as all competitive sports) will always be: the market, on one hand, and the fair rules of the game. To put it in the simplest way - one extreme is unregulated, and the other fully regulated. The game falls somewhere in the middle, and all we do here is argue how much should we pull.
There is NO necessity in the competition entirely losing it's worth if it were entirely exposed to the market forces: if, for example, all the rich people of the world had a shared interest in football, the result might actually be a lot of money going into all the teams - and the competition only gets better and better.
But there is one necessity - and it emanates from the nature of the game: if it is not played by more or less equal teams, it is worthless. If, for example (as can happen today, and does happen - to what extent we can debate) there's one team full of Ronaldos playing another full of amateurs, the whole thing is pointless.
Something interesting may be happening in that respect concerning La Liga and the CL (thus taking us back to the initial topic): What happens with Real and Barca is fucked on so many levels it's unreal; but the thought arises that had it not been for the emergence of the CL, that sick process would at some point come to a halt: they keep owing money to the same people who in the end are left without a meaningful league? that's crazy, and though (in spain, and some other places) that's not an assurance it would be enough to stop it, it just might (at some point).
Enter the CL, and a new, potent motivation to keep feeding the beast: the semi-national pride and support, dragging with it the whole country, making the government silence enough to the corrupt nature of proceedings, as people are obviously happy with the result. And then they beg the rich (Germany, who, in case you forgot, has "an inferior league", and teams that simply can't compete with the "giants from spain" - they have no chance, they can't pay such money!), and keep winning the major trophies.
Finally, I'm the last person to defend Platini and his type - I think the guy is a real low life. But for the life of me I cannot understand how people can reject in principle any form of fair play rules. To me it is quite simple: if there is no monitoring, or frame of regulations that would keep football a fair competition, the whole thing will be left to the mercy of forces who care not about it, and the likelihood of it surviving (as I mentioned above - it is not impossible, only quite random) is, in my opinion, minimal.
