With changes on the way to the Champions League for season 2018/19 Celtic’s performances in Europe next season are absolutely crucial.
The threat of action from the EPFL could derail the new set up but if it goes through in it’s current format the route to riches and sharing the big stage will become much much harder.
The main changes effecting Celtic, assuming that they win next season’s title is that there will be four places rather than five from the Champions League, qualifying will involve four rounds not three and higher rated countries will drop into the Champions route.
Keeping fans upto date with the real issues is the co-efficient expert Moravcik 67 who first appeared on Kerrydale Street and now has a popular twitter account.
The 2018/19 co-efficient will see Celtic lose their impressive 2012/13 results when they reached the last 16 of the Champions League knock out phase after picking up 10 points from their group.
Two subsequent Champions League campaigns have achieved only six points while two Europa League campaigns didn’t provide the expected/hoped for results.
It’s a year early but as things stand Celtic WON’T be seeded for the third and fourth qualifying rounds meaning that they would be drawn against higher ranked teams.
Without the 2012/13 results Celtic’s co-efficient drops from 42.75 down to 23 highlighting how important next season will be.
Celtic WILL almost certainly be seeded through three qualifying rounds, in an ideal world they will get through to the group phase, finish a respectable third and then enjoy a few rounds in the Europa League to push into the top batch of seeds for the following season.
If the changes go through Celtic will have their own co-efficient at every stage rather than the Scottish national co-efficient. Any new club faces four qualifying rounds unseeded.
To keep in touch with the development follow Moravcik 67 on twitter.
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