CELTIC will be up against it next season to try and qualify for the Champions League with UEFA confirming Celtic will have to play and win FOUR qualifiers to get to the group stage.

Gone are the days when the Scottish Champions would head straight into the group stage, we thought we were hard done by when we had one qualifier – now we face four!

While Celtic should be no match for the teams in early qualifiers, they come so early that there’s no real time for a close season.

Celtic will finish their season potentially the third week in May if they get to the Scottish Cup Final and will be due back the second week in June to prepare for Champions League run.

UEFA are trying to close shop and make it as easy as possible for the big boys i.e the rich sides to play in the competition every season – leaving clubs like Celtic with an uphill battle and plenty of potential banana skins.

Peter Lawwell has spoken for some time now about change to European football, surely something has to give the more Scottish, Dutch, French sides etc are starved of money spinning Champions League runs.

4 COMMENTS

  1. Uh Oh,can feel all this Atlantic League and the like talk resurfacing again,but U.e.f.a are not interested in the teams from outwith the top Euro leagues.They have proved that by the way they have structured qualifying to involve second and third placed teams from the”money” leagues to enter the Champions???? League.
    About time they reverted back to calling it the European cup,how can it remain to be called the Champions league?when they are allowing teams that haven’t won a league title for years,or in fact for their entire puff,to
    enter the competition.Real Madrid won C.L in 2016/17 in fact after only being runners up in La Liga the previous season.

  2. Agree with your romantic idea Gordon pal but sorry were dreaming mate it will never be the European cup again. The champs league is now a money making juggernaut for 4 top leagues plus PSG. The only level playing field that will be created is with what Lawell stated 2 weeks ago a Europa league/Cup that spans an entire season and has its own stand alone sponsorship and TV deals. Champs league is a fake product just like the premiership in England, its a plaything of the rich, we are not wanted in it by the rich clubs they basically want to play each other.

  3. All football associations out with the big 4/5 countries should pull their national sides out of the European Championships until there is an equal reform in European club football

  4. Since the Europa league is a 2nd rate competition, as the big leagues see it, then none of their teams should be allowed into it.
    Only teams from outwith the 4 big leagues and France should be allowed to play in it.
    Wonder how long people will be bored with just the teams from those leagues in the CL.
    The TV companies will lose a lot of punters if that happens.

Leave a Reply to John Cancel reply

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.