This writing seems to be comparing the capable and the incapable. So what does the writer mean by "any champions = supporter" related to the "underdog"? Someone who helps such incapable people? Or is it a metaphor for incapability?
st15)Free competition, which was the watchword of nineteenth-century liberalism, had undoubtedly much to be said in its favor. It increased the wealth of the nations, and it accelerated the transition from handicrafts to machine industry ; it tended to remove artificial injustices and realised Napoleon's idea of opening careers to talent. It left, however, one great injustice unremedied- the injustice due to unequal talents. In a world of free competition the man whom Nature has made energetic and astute grows rich, while the man whose merits are of a less competitive kind remains poor. The result is that the gentle and contemplative types remain without power, and that those who acquire power believe that their success is due to their virtues. The underdog remains, therefore, without any champions possessing the kind of ability that leads to success.