Scott Brown has blasted Uefa for making it even harder for Celtic to get into the Champions League this time around.
The Celtic captain believes the cards are stacked against his side even more but they’re ready for the challenge whoever is put in front of them.
“Uefa seem to making it harder and harder for us to get there. “We’ve made it a few times, we’ve done it in the last two years which gives us hope, but then they make it harder and harder. We just need to make sure that, no matter what they put in our way, we need to jump over those hurdles.
“We’ll get whoever we get. I’m not worried too much about it. I don’t take too much notice of who we can get before the draw is made. Someone will come out to the training pitch on Tuesday and let us know who it is. We’ll see what happens and take it from there.”
There was a time when the champions of Scotland were automatically in the group stage, then only one qualifier but it has crept up more and more to the point the players will be busy from mid-July.
The draw will be made at Uefa headquarters later today.
Past winners and past finalists of the European cup , having to play so many games to get there, not a straight deck of cards. Loaded in favour of money clubs . Unfair to the sport .
Definitely not fair, but we have to accept our route to qualifying, ie the SPL is an easier route than say, Serie A. So there’s a price to be paid for that. I’m not excusing the fact that it is becoming something of a closed shop for the likes of Anderlecht, Ajax, Benfica and ourselves. all great clubs. Truth is we need a radical change to our own environment. Whether tats a future move to a biggers et up, or Scottish football moving to summer etc, a move that would almost certainly see more Scottish success in early rounds and therefore an improved coefficient and all that that brings. For now, we will likely face clubs that are on a par with Scottish league one in terms of facilities, and in many cases in terms of standards. We have it, somewhat in our own remit to improve the coefficient and thus avoid these games, but we need help from other SPL clubs to boost that.