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Cash has shifted the balance of power in European football but how long before it leads to success?

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In the 80s and 90s we saw the world's best flock to Spain and Italy and later England but these days it's not unusual to see a former World Cup winner and World Player Of The Year play in Uzbekistan and a superstar in Andrei Arshavin stay put Russia, says Alister Morgan.

The world's best headed to Serie A in the mid-1980s but as the Lira gave way to the Euro, elite players flooded into an expanding global market in Western Europe. Barcelona and Real Madrid also have a long history of importing talent (primarily from Latin America) so they weren't slow to respond. Meanwhile new television money flooded into England - we were used to a splattering of Norwegians, Danes and Dutch converts but soon the Premiership would look as cosmopolitan as a United Nations convention.

For well over a decade Italy, Spain and increasingly England have laid out the red carpet for the world's best footballers with other European countries hardly having a look-in. Even top players in France, Portugal and Netherlands inevitably head to one of Europe's big three leagues and their dominance can be illustrated by viewing the winners of the prestigious Fifa World Player of the Year Award.

Since its inception in 1991 individual recipients have come from as far a field as Liberia, Portugal and (repeatedly) Brazil but every winner has represented a team in either Italy or Spain. It's telling that Ronaldo may well succeed, where Shearer, Beckham and Henry failed, and win Fifa's most prestigious award for a Premiership team.

An influx of foreign managers and mega-rich owners has also prompted major changes on the pitch. It's rare to see top home-grown players from Italy, Spain or England compete outside their parent countries but European Champions Spain have half their senior squad playing in the Premiership - particularly in the red half of Merseyside.

Taking everything into account it's easy to identify one persistent reason why the world's best players gravitate to the same markets... cash. Ronaldo's representatives may be negotiating a new £160k-a-week deal but increasingly there's plenty of money on offer outside of the Premiership, La Liga and Serie A as footballs' global market broadens?

Rivaldo won the Fifa World Player award in 1999 but currently plays for FC Bunyodkor in Uzbekistan. I'm guessing that his pay-packet, as opposed to the breathtaking views from Bunyodkor, may have secured his services. David Beckham left Madrid to join the comically named Major League Soccer alongside Premiership migrants Juan Pablo Angel and Darren Huckerby while many talented Brazilians are finding their way to Japan's J-League.

Roman Abramovich made a splash in West London but some of his compatriots have made waves without leaving home. Zenit St Petersburg illustrated the value of home-grown talent when winning the 2008 Uefa Cup. Following impressive displays at international level many clubs tried to temp the cream of Russia away from home. We waited for the Russians to arrive but it never happened. Top Russian players earn huge wages from cash-rich clubs who relish placing gargantuan price tags on elite players. Zenit's Andrei Arshavin was priced at £25m and no team wanted to pay that... not even Spurs who shelled out £14m for Roman Pavlyuchenko instead.

The overall balance of football remains the same with Spain, Italy and England still the main destination for top players but the market is definitely widening. Even with Arshavin it will take time for clubs like Zenit to challenge the old order. Winning the Uefa Cup is one thing but when you're drawn in a Champions League group against Juventus and Real Madrid, you can consider yourselves unlucky.

With Madrid's domestic form in freefall I suspect that Zenit may have one surprise left in the tank. Zenit are [7.6] to qualify from Group H and face Juve at home on November 25th but the Italians have already qualified. Real Madrid are [1.14] to qualify but they face a BATE side well capable of causing an upset. It will be a nervy night as Madrid cautiously travel to Belarus knowing that a banana skin lies somewhere underfoot. I can't see much value in backing Zenit at [160.0] to win the Champions League but I fancy their chances to win their last game in Madrid and edge out one of Europe's old order.