THEY are calling it Champions League 2.0. That long-floated idea for a European Super League on the NFL franchise model might finally be on its way if Bundesliga CEO Christian Seifert is to be believed.

The European Club Association - an umbrella body of all Europe's top clubs, on which five Scottish clubs, Celtic, Aberdeen, Hearts, Motherwell and Rangers are represented - is reportedly discussing whether the Champions League should start to move towards an American-style league, removing the need for leading clubs to qualify.

"If a Super League comes in the way you heard it and I heard it, that could help our top league because of the brand recognition and brand awareness," said Seifert recently. "As with any other company in the world, Uefa or the ECA has to think about what can be done better in the future."

So what is Herr Seifert hearing? Well, details are thin, but AP reported recently that the uber-powerful ECA executive board - which includes Celtic's Peter Lawwell - are discussing secret plans ahead of the next Champions League TV deal, which is due to start in 2018. Among the ideas floated at their meetings include a proposal for places to be reserved each year for the biggest and most attractive clubs in terms of broadcasting revenue.

That would include AC Milan, who last won the trophy in 2007, but currently sit sixth in the Serie A table and are facing a third successive season of non-qualification. Not to mention Manchester United, who could miss out for the second campaign in three years, along with Chelsea and Liverpool, both of whom could miss out in the turkey shoot which is the Barclays Premier League this year.

By contrast, big-spending Paris St Germain need to leave France to find more meaningful competition, and giants such as Bayern Munich in Germany, Barcelona and Real Madrid in Spain already operate in a different financial stratosphere than many of their domestic rivals. Most observers can sense a staleness about the format of the Champions League.

What the repercussions of this are for ambitious Scottish clubs like Celtic - and presumably Rangers when they return to the top flight - remains to be seen, but there may be a sense that things could hardly be much worse for our teams. Scotland's top side have missed out on the Champions League in three of the last five seasons and if a club like Celtic could get a toe-hold it could be a game changer.

While this further erosion of that precious commodity, sporting integrity, will stick in most people's craw, somehow in football there always seems a temptation to pull up the drawbridge and protect your position. Over in Scotland, that other recent NFL-style proposal, for the so-called 'draft' system on youth players, also rings a bell.

While the details of that SFA scheme are still up for negotiation, it also amounts to a scenario where the big clubs become bigger and smaller ones become an irrelevance. Leave developing young players to the big boys, they are being told. Don't worry, you can share a youth academy with your local rivals, whatever division they are in, and draft five hand picked players from a big club each season, to help develop them for their return to the big time.

But all clubs with ambition, either on a domestic or continental scale, realise that developing the young talent coming through their community is of course their lifeblood. That is why Hamilton and Falkirk can hold their heads high and punch above their weight. Try telling Hamilton they now have to share with Motherwell, or persuading Falkirk not to re-establish their own academy as soon as they get up.

Both are attempting to buck the trend as the rich get richer, and media markets don't want too much in the way of surprises. Perhaps, as Marx might have said, all this is the inevitable onward march of capitalism. Someone may make a lot of money out of Champions League 2.0 but Scottish football may have to act fast if it is not to miss the bus.