None of us actually know what the CL was like in the 50s, but Serie A from the mid 80s til the early 00s is easily the best/strongest league I've ever seen, and I don't think we'll ever see a league as amazingly strong and competitive like it again.
It was a farce, at least in Scotland.
Aberdeen won the league in 1955, which should have qualified them for the first European Cup.
But the Scottish FA insisted that their committee should vote on which club should represent Scotland.
The Chairman of the SFA was also the chairman of Hibs and, wouldn't you know it, the SFA voted Hibs into the European Cup.
Greatest injustice in the history of the world.
I've refused to take the European Cup/Champions League seriously ever since.