Comment: Borussia Dortmund are no Champions League final minnows, but they are the closest we have

According to Football Benchmark's latest calculations, Edin Terzic's 1997 European Cup winners are Europe’s 11th richest club. It is hardly Wimbledon 1988.

But the field has become so narrow that even those rottweilers outside the top 10 are underdogs. Of that top 10, only the aristocrats of Arsenal have failed to reach a European Cup final since 2010.

Real Madrid have won five of 13 finals in that time and having not lost one since 1981, are strong favourites to lift Old Big Ears a 15th time. Carlo Ancelotti is going for his seventh title, his fifth as manager.

The only new name on the trophy this century has been that of Manchester City, flagship team of the United Arab Emirates’ cash reserves and subject of 115 charges for allegedly breaking the Premier League's financial fair play rules.

Even the venues are getting repetitive. Wembley is hosting for the third time in 14, the eighth overall.

Things are only likely to get more predictable. A massively-expanded (and laughably-named) Champions League group stage means more places for the elite, and the knockouts will be entirely seeded for the first time next season.

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It is a relief Bayer Leverkusen ended Bayern Munich's 11-title Bundesliga-winning streak, and Aston Villa broke the Premier League's Champions League cartel.

Whisper it quietly here, but England – home to six of Football Benchmark's 10 richest clubs – not getting one of the extra slots in Europe’s top competition (for now) is for the greater good.

Madrid are one of European football's most admired teams, their romanticism inspiring Don Revie to change Leeds United's kit in the 1960s to match their all white. If they win again, they will be worthy European champions.

With Jude Bellingham facing Jadon Sancho, an Englishman gets a winners’ medal either way.

But only a second victory for Dortmund, who refused to join the European Super League Madrid are still pathetically trying to peddle, might be as close as we get to a heartwarming champion.