Winning the Premiership could carry an extra European advantage for Celtic from next season following a change to UEFA’s Europa League qualifying system.
The Scottish Cup winners will enter the Europa League in the first qualifying round, while the teams finishing second and third in the Premiership are set to go into Conference League qualifying.
From 2027/28, UEFA will also split the Europa League play-off round into a Champions Path and a Main Path.
That would keep them separate from non-champions coming through the Main Path and could provide a more favourable route into the Europa League league phase.
There would still be no guarantee of an easy tie. Celtic’s coefficient, the clubs involved and results in earlier qualifying rounds would all influence any potential draw.
But it does mean that finishing top in Scotland could now bring another benefit beyond simply securing entry to Champions League qualifying.
If Celtic were to miss out on the title, their European qualifying route would be different and they would not have the same Champions Path protection.
That makes the Premiership crown even more valuable from 2027/28.
Celtic would begin their Champions League campaign earlier than in recent seasons, but if that route ended before the league phase, UEFA’s new structure could give the Scottish champions a better chance of salvaging Europa League football.
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2 responses
if only Celtic could benefit from there own associations we have three fame coming up cup ga me against our nearest challengers away from home with our supporters banned cause the Rangers cant control supporters then midweek home game against europa game then at home to the Rangers we have an International break which majority of our squad are playing for there country id say some one wants to make it hard for our bhoys and the say I’m paranoid after var decisions in last two games
we aren’t up to champions league takes 2 to 3 seasons to build a team by that time they are sold on its the business we are in we have three loan players two with to buy the third a young Chelsea forward how Chelsea think a lot of and wouldn’t just give e to any team to bring on his progression so far this bhoy looks the deal he a Celtic player the now