UEFA Rule Change Opens Door for Celtic to Sign Defender

There are TWO WEEKS left of the January transfer window, and Celtic are still to get in defensive reinforcements.

While the club is finding it hard to nail down a target, they do have one big boost in their search for a new right-back, and that is the newly introduced UEFA rules.

Previously, if a player was to play ANY minutes for their club in either the Europa League or the Champions League in the first half of the season, they would be ruled out of appearing for another club in the competition during the same season. For example, Marvin Compper was brought in last January and was not eligible to play for Celtic against Zenit because he had played for Leipzig in the Champions League.

This rule has now been scrapped by UEFA, widening the pool of players which Celtic can target during the January window.

We already see Brendan Rodgers try to take advantage of the new rule with their interest in Olympiacos player Omar Elabdellaoui.

The Norweigan international has played for the Greek Giants in the Europa League group stages but would be available if Celtic managed to land him.