On June 19 the balls will come out of the pot with another Champions League campaign up and running on from July 10 or 11.
Over the course of eight midweeks Celtic’s fate will be decided as they chase a third consecutive place in the group phase and the £30m bonus that comes with it.
Brendan Rodgers’ side will be seeded in each of the four qualifying rounds which provides a big boost although the relentless rate of qualifiers will be as big a factor as the quality of opponents.
The first qualifying round should be fairly straightforward and is likely to be arranged geographically, in recent seasons Celtic have been to Gibraltar, Iceland and the north east of Ireland.
Cork City and Crusaders represent Ireland in next season’s draw with an old foe, Valur the champions of Iceland.
The highest seeded sides that Celtic could face are Olimpija Ljubljana of Slovenia, F91 Dudelange of Luxembourg and Slovakia champions Spartak Trnava.
Assuming progress is made the toughest possible opponents in the second qualifying round would be FC Midtjylland of Denmark, Serbian side Red Star Belgrade and our play-off opponents from 2016 Hapoel Beer-Sheva.
With higher rated nations now involved in the Champions route the third qualifying round could see paired with Qarabag from Azerbaijam, Bulgarian champions BATE Borisov or Dinamo Zagreb from Croatia.
Getting to the business end of the process Celtic’s play-off opponents will come from APORL Nicosia of Cyprus, Legia Warsaw and Young Boys of Bern plus one other.
Despite qualifying over the last two seasons there has been plenty of difficult moments along the way with Hapoel Beer-Sheva and Astana threatening Celtic’s place in the final play-off round.
