The UEFA Champions League may be making a cracking impression of a dormant volcano, but that doesn’t stop us talking about it – diversity index report from PlayTheGame, Neymar ban upheld and Sadio Mané chooses country over his club.

A nifty piece of work by PlayTheGame.org reveals that capitalism is killing the grassroots of football with the best in Europe continuing to eat caviar filled vol-au-vents with the rest settling for the black bits and pieces found at the bottom of a toaster.

The Diversity Index is PlayTheGame’s way of monitoring the divergent nature of admittance to UEFA’s Champions League (UCL), the most lucrative club competition this side of the flies hanging around the body keeping the door ajar a few metres from me.

Europe’s Big Five League’s all saw familiar faces leading the caravan of clubs trying to squeeze into the gates of the UCL this year, with Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain all retaining their titles, along with 23 other clubs across European leagues.