IT was a moment that launched a thousand supplements, instigated a myriad of twitter feuds and, almost incidentally, scheduled a football match. But the convulsions of the pairing of Rangers v Celtic in the semi-final were a strictly local phenomena.

Sitting in the Placa de Catalunya in Barcelona on the day after that fateful event, one could only admire the restraint of the populace to such a momentous event. More tellingly, a perusal of several English newspapers, two of the Spanish sporting variety and the International Herald Tribune revealed that not one mention of the Glasgow derby had been made, even in the six-point text normally reserved for carrying the windsurfing results.

This reader was not quite splurting his coffee in surprise as he searched in vain for any news from home, specifically that from the draw at Hampden. One has become accustomed to the sound and fury that emanates from the Scottish football scene yet barely carries as a whisper across our border.

Yet the media silence did cause more than a moment’s reflection under a Catalan sun. In 1967, Rangers v Celtic would be a match between two sides who had contested the major European finals of that year. Rangers v Celtic in 1972 would have been a match between the European Cup-Winners’ Cup victors and a losing semi-finalist in the European Cup. A similar match in the 1980s would have garnered interest beyond Scotland not least because it featured the captain of England. Matches in the 90s and noughties would have involved Champions League perennials, finalists in the Uefa Cup. Europe or the world would not have been consumed by such a match but it would have been of interest, worthy of comment.

The reaction to the 2016 version is indicative of how the game has moved on and how Scottish football has been left behind, hamstrung by limited television revenues and weakened by the Bosman ruling that ensures players can make a name in Scotland before quickly making a fortune elsewhere. It also raises the question of what can be done to improve matters or whether the financial realities of the moment will dictate a future of dwindling returns.

“I knew that it was coming up but I have not marked it down as something I want to watch,” says Jonathan Wilson, author of five football books, expert on European football and editor of the football periodical, The Blizzard. This relaxed attitude towards matters in Scotland was not always the case for Wilson.

“I started watching football in the 1980s and the Old Firm match was a very big game then, almost the big game. English clubs were not in Europe and for an English boy the Old Firm teams were not only competing in Europe but were speckled with our players, particularly Rangers.”

But he accepts that the downgrading of the derby has been made inevitable by the absence of Champions League group stage football at Ibrox or Celtic Park in recent years. “Scottish football is becoming less and less significant in terms of the Champions League,” says Wilson without any satisfaction. “It will be viewed by many as a little local squabble that doesn’t matter. There may be people in Vienna and Belgrade who say that it is a big game and watch it on satellite television. They will do the same with such matches as Boca v River Plate. This is the biggest of games in Argentina but does it have wider ramifications, does it matter to the supporter outwith the city or country? Well, not really.”

This, of course, may largely always have been true. The demand for an Old Firm may have been overstated by a besotted domestic media and audience. But the more damaging and dangerous development is how football in small leagues, that is ones without huge television revenues, has been shoved to the sidelines and may find it impossible to impose themselves on the lucrative stages of the Champions League.

This is not purely a Caledonian problem. Is it impossible to imagine a Dutch, Scandinavian or even Portuguese side winning the Champions League? “Unfortunately, probably yes,” says Wilson. He believes that it is “encouraging that the elite have recognised this as a problem” but adds that their ideas of addressing it are “abysmal”. The level playing field no longer exists with the Champions League group stages merely being a process to compensate those not quite at elite level while the big clubs sail through to the knockout stages. However, the qualifying stages act as a further bar to those wanting to share in a fantastically rich competition.

The competition needs a revamp, not least because, as Wilson states, interest in the Champions League is diminishing among viewers. The hot ticket is the English Premier League. It may not have the quality but it has an energy and excitement and, crucially, a growing element of uncertainty. The riches pouring into the English game from domestic television rights ensures that next season the bottom club will receive £100 million in cash, plus a further £85m to cushion the blow of relegation.

“The wash of money is so great now in England that everyone is rich,” says Wilson. “Manchester City may be mega rich but Crystal Palace can recruit [Yohan] Cabaye and West Ham can sign [Dimitri] Payet.” This helps explain the Leicester City phenomenon where some of the “fairy tale” narrative can be compromised by the realisation that the Thai owner has spent £70m in recruitment in recent years. It would take Celtic or Rangers half a century in present terms to earn from television what the bottom English club will pocket in a season. This, of course, impacts heavily on any aspirations in European competition.

“The Celtic I grew up with, the Celtic teams I watched went to European finals and semi-finals regularly,” says David Low, the financial adviser who helped Fergus McCann take over Celtic in 1994 and was at the helm of an unsuccessful £3.5m move to buy Hibernian two years ago. “But that is unthinkable now. The divide is unbridgeable. The outlook is very poor indeed without major change over the rules that restrict clubs to local jurisdiction.” This, in essence, is the geography regulation that complies Celtic, Rangers or any Scottish side to play under the auspices of the Scottish Football Association in a domestic league.

“There are only two ways to change this,” says Low. “You can challenge the rules aggressively through legal means or work quietly, politically from within. Celtic are doing the latter, I believe. But it is an issue that is crucial to whether the club progresses or not. The new reality may be that qualification for the Champions League group stages is a luxury that is not a regular occurrence but that happens every four or five years. Rangers too have to live within their means so there is no quick route for them. The accessibility to money under Thatcherism has ended and Rangers have no obvious facilities from banks.”

So as we ponder the local rammy at Hampden this weekend is there no hope of an impact by Rangers or Celtic on a wider stage? Both Wilson and Low agree that the most obvious cause for optimism is the power vacuum at Fifa and Uefa that has been caused by the turmoil over corruption in the game. There may, just may be an opportunity to introduce polices that ensure big clubs in small counties in terms of revenue earning may have access to the lucrative revenue streams coursing through the sport.

But, at the moment, the only consolation may be that at least Hampden will host a genuine derby. Wilson, whose book on Argentinian football, Angels with Dirty Faces, will be published in the summer, points out that the idea of a derby in South America can be, well, flexible.

“In the top division in Argentina, everyone plays everyone once, except derby rivals who play each other home and away. This produces some unusual match-ups when teams do not have obvious rivals and have to be drawn a derby opponent. For example, Kimberley Mar de Plata have been told that their derby rivals are Crucero del Norte who are just 1,200 miles up the road.”

There will be nothing simulated about the rivalry at Hampden tomorrow . But the greatest argument has to be won with the powerbrokers of European football.