Regressive. Protectionist. A closed shop. European football's largest ever scandal. Club officials threw these criticisms at UEFA following the European football association’s decision to change the format for the Champions League in 2018.

This year the number of guaranteed places for the top clubs of Europe increased from 22 to 26 out of 32, with the most influential clubs continuing their stranglehold on the multi-billion euro contest.

Four places were reserved for the powerful footballing nations of Europe - Spain, Italy, Germany and England -, leaving two for France and Russia, and only one place each for Portugal, Ukraine, Belgium and Turkey, along with the Europa League and Champions League winners.

Valid for three seasons, the changes ensure that the richest clubs in Europe - Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Barcelona and Madrid - will almost never miss out on the cash and glory of the Champions League, even if they slip from the top of their domestic competitions.

Meanwhile winners of domestic leagues in the majority of European countries must struggle through qualifying rounds before securing one of only six spots against the royals of football.

This creates a competition dominated by the giants of the game, and deals a further blow to east European football.

To draw up the new format, UEFA took into account only the recent success of clubs, not the historical progress and victories of teams such as Red Star Belgrade and its 1991 win in the European Cup, Steaua Bucuresti and its defeat of Barcelona in 1986, and Dynamo Kiev almost making the Champions League final in 1999, before crashing out to a Bayern comeback.

Outrage at the changes came from France, which only has half as many teams in the competition as its large European neighbours.

“This is the biggest scandal in the history of European football. This is a reform that was decided in secret,” said Bernard Caiazzo, president of AS Saint-Etienne and of the union of Ligue 1 clubs. He denounced “the huge influence“ of the European football club’s union, and “of the German-Italian axis, on UEFA”.

This may sound like a paranoid conspiracy theory, but it was close to the truth.

In 2016, a secret coalition led by four of Europe's biggest clubs, created a plan for an elite private league to break away from national competitions and the Champions League

Such a move would enrich the top names from Spain, Italy, Germany and England, at the expense of smaller clubs and footballing nations.

From confidential documents obtained by Der Spiegel and shared with members of the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) Network, we show the method for “reforming” the Champions League was achieved by a plan to split not just from Europe's premier competition, but from UEFA itself.

Bayern, Juventus, Real Madrid and Barcelona joined together in what resembles a cartel to examine the possibility of creating a private European “Super League”, and they were joined for part of the journey by Manchester United, Arsenal and AC Milan.

The plan was for the super-clubs to free themselves from UEFA and soak up all the profits from TV rights and sponsorship deals in a competition between the leading brands of European club football, where every game would have the cachet of El Clasico.

This “secret society” of footballing heavyweights appeared to use this project as leverage to persuade UEFA to reform the Champions League in favour of the mega-clubs, and UEFA seemingly capitulated.

But the concept of a pan-European league where the giants of the game face each other every season for eternity is not dead.

Now the covert alliance may have almost reached its goal. According to a confidential memo dated 22 October 2018, 16 top clubs seem to be preparing to sign a document establishing a similar league for 2021.

Here is the inside story of foul play among the footballing elite.