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Celtic's route into the 2013 Champions League

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Champions League Celtic newsCeltic will start to the 2013/14 season in mid July- if they win the SPL title.

With an 18 point lead and 12 matches left to play the destination of the title is virtually sealed with a win over Motherwell next Wednesday likely to start the guessing game as to where and when the championship will be clinched.

Despite their Champions League heroics this season, stretching over 12 matches from Helsinki to Turin, Celtic will be involved in the second round draw for next season’s competition.

The draw for that will take place on June 24 with the second round matches played on July 16/17 and 23/24 with the third round draw being made in-between those matches with the games played on July 30/31 and August 6/7.

Celtic are likely to be the top seeded team in the second round draw due to their own co-efficient but it’s the national co-efficient that determines what stage you enter the competition.

An earlier start to the season means that the club will almost certainly be spending their pre-season in Europe following the success of this season’s trip to Germany and Holland.

The biggest problem will be for international players with a full card of World Cup qualifiers on June 7/8 seeing Scotland travel to Croatia. Emilio Izaguirre is likely to be in the Honduras side that faces qualifiers against Costa Rica and the USA on June 7 and 18.

To combat those demands Neil Lennon may give some of his players time off depending on Celtic’s progress in the Scottish Cup with the quarter final away to St Mirren on March 2 possibly the most important match of the season.

A win over St Mirren will keep the season going with a semi-final to overcome before hopefully the Scottish Cup Final on May 25.

Looking ahead at the early start to next season Joe Ledley said: “We’ve looked at the possibility of some players finishing the season early if we can win the league quickly.

“We are only going to have a short break as it stands, three weeks I think, and it’s important as professional footballers to have rest.

“It is not ideal just to have three weeks and then get right back into it again with crucial qualifiers early in the next season.

“We have played 45 games already, so it would be a good idea to rest people. Rest is key with the amount of games we will have played in this campaign.”

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0 comments

  • Antoninho says:

    Ridiculous the amount of qualifiers that a club like Celtic must endure to even be allowed to compete at that level. Scandalous tbh.

  • Williebhoy says:

    We are at least in the fortunate position whereby we should only be asking our top players to play a max of 35-40 games a season. Thereby giving them some rest during the season itself rather than ask them to play 60-70 games.

    It’s more important than ever that Lennon utilises the full squad, maybe even have designated squads for the domestic cups which in reality mean little.

    Hope also that for next preseason we don’t try to take a squad of near 30 players which simply results in none of them being properly match sharp.

  • Greenjedi says:

    If FIFA gave a toss about the most important people in Football – The Players – then they would ban all Professional Football in June & July with rhe exception of June every 2 years when the WC, The Euros, Copa America, The ACON and whatever the Asian championships are called are played.

  • Ciaran says:

    I want to see Celtic win the Scottish Cup this year. I would have liked to see the club win the treble. It wasn’t to be.

    However, this news of possibly allowing players time off before the season ends is a non-starter. Especially if we beat St Mirren next month. Our fringe players should be good enough, as proved last week, but it is another gamble. The only way our top men can guarantee time off and rest is to get put out of the cup next month.

    It is totally unacceptable a club like Celtic should start the qualifying rounds so early. But when 5 teams from the SPL (almost 50%) qualify, and none of the other 4 win a single game between them, what chance have we got?

  • gerrym says:

    i’m afraid FIFA only give a toss about the money they make

  • barcabuster says:

    Off topic, but I just got email reply re George Galloway and the editing out of his statement about Rangers tax situation The usual curtesies, then they stated there was legal concerns regarding the legitimacy of the statement. BBC reserves the right to edit,blah blah, your complaint noted, blah blah . A polite F off.

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