CELTIC won 5-0 against Kalju in the second round qualifier first leg on Wednesday night and put themselves on a collision course with either Cluj or Maccabi Tel-Aviv.
Cluj take a slender 1-0 victory to Israel next week in the hope of eeking out a draw or win to book a match against Celtic. However, Cluj boss Dan Petrescu has gone on a rant about his club and other champions accross Europ having to jump through hoops to get into the Champions League.
The setup of the Champions League means there are teams who are qualifying for the competition for finishing fourth in their domestic league while the likes of Celtic and Ajax have to play out a lot of qualifiers to get into the competition.
The Cluj boss remains unimpressed and bemoans the setup.
“I do not like the competition. I watch Ajax play in the preliminaries. What is this?” Petrescu told SunSport.
“They played the Champions’ final and they are in the preliminaries. The champions of Holland. God forbid!
“Why are they not directly in the group stages?
“Let’s also respect the countries. All countries deserve a team in the Champions League in a tournament that is called the Champions League.
“It’s not normal what’s going on. Romanians have to be appreciated.
“We fight like a lunatic one year, we become champions and then wake up every two days on planes.
“We don’t even make money.
“We have to be respected to be in groups too”
Celtic fans will share his view on things. It’s not that long before the last kick of the ball has happened on the previous campaign before the players are back in for another season.
Celtic started their qualifiers in early July and will have to go all the way to August in the hope of qualifying.
The Scottish Champions are in a good place at the moment but as we found out last year, one slip and it could all come crashing down.
Couldn’t agree more, the two “Champions” are n last year’s final hadn’t won their league for a combined 70+ years, Money Money Money.
Good hearing from someone in football speaking out about this – it is becoming a sham of a tourney and not by any means a fair game. UEFA ‘suits’ are just interested in their own bank balance – Not the game itself , kick the lot of them out and get real people in. Or set up another association ? Brexit cup ?