Football

Mike, I'm assuming that the meaningless games you're referring to are the Europa League games? If so, it would make me wonder why Atletico, Porto, Benfica et al bother with it? Perhaps it's the arrogant PL clubs that consider participating in Europe a nuisance or are they just being bitter for missing out on a CL spot

No. I mean just random games against other English non-European participants.
The Europa league games are often more entertaining than the CL games