Next season will be the last in which the SPFL champions will be given automatic qualification into the Champions League.
A draw for Plzen against Fiorentina in UEFA Conference League has edged the Czech co-efficient above Scotland to secure the final automatic spot into the UEFA money-spinner.
From season 25/26 the Scottish champions will have to go into the Champions Route to the competition which involves qualifiers against champions from similar nations.
Celtic have enjoyed the benefits of two successive guaranteed places in the group stage but next season’s SPFL champions will face two qualifying rounds covering four successive August midweeks to make it into the new, expanded Champions League format.
Plzen’s draw with Fiorentina tonight sees the Czech Republic take 10th place in the rankings away from Scotland.
That means Scotland loses the guaranteed CL place for the 25/26 season.
This year’s SPFL winner still qualifies automatically for next season’s tournament.
— Moravcik67 (@Moravcik67_) April 11, 2024
Recent performances in Europe suggests that it will be some time before Scotland return to the top level with the co-efficient based on five years of results from all clubs.
To regain an automatic place it would require two clubs picking up more than six points from group stage matches, Celtic achieved that in season’s 2019/20 and 21/22 but failed badly in the other three campaigns with just six points from their last two seasons in the Champions League.
Watching the club getting tanked in Europe because the board are stockpiling cash in order to up their bonus’s is hardly a bad thing.
Fear was my biggest emotion when Celtic were recently participating in the CL, fear of taking another doing.
Read reports claiming it actually affected next season?
Sure it will become clearer now what the actual situation currently is?
Editor: Next season’s qualification was assured as soon as the 22/23 season was completed.
Boom!
This news means that Celtic FC do not have a SNOWBALLS CHANCE IN HELL of winning this season’s title…
Put your life savings and mortgages on that…
Because The SFA and The SPFL will demand now…
That the Cheats with whistles, flags and monitors that they employ will absolutely see to it that Sevco win it…
It’s garaunteed with that news !
Just gives Lawwell another excuse not to spend the fans money. The slow lane just got even slower.
Celtic Board failure anyone ???
P lawwells obsession with keeping celtic 1 step ahead of sevco continually has really paid off EH,
Fkn miser , could have left them behind years ago if he’d invented in the team , always the cheapest option with that chancer at the helm. Slithers off after the failure to win 10 in a row due to his negligence .
Well Pete the failure is on you again with your return , mayhem prevails with your penny pinching (2 transfer windows), could cost us big time if the league is lost .
Lawwell had been told continually this was on the cards but ignored everything around him for a bank balance, now the coefficient suffers under his inability to realise we should be so far ahead of where we are now.
Take a look below Jim!
If anyone is in doubt that this Celtic Board have failed, then just think back to the Cluj UCL qualifying round second -leg and Neil Lennon as manager.
We played a 4-3-3 at home that night, needing only a draw to qualify!
We had that tie won on at least two occassions during the match but succeeded only in throwing it away!
That is where, for me, it all began to look a bit pear-shaped!
Celtic were humped out of the UCL – by a team lower in the UEFA rankings than Celtic.
Well, we are not leaving that painful, real scenario any time soon!
No, because the reality is that there we are and we are trapped there.
Take a look at the current UEFA Club Rankings and you will find that sevco are currently in twenty fourth place and that is twenty five places ABOVE Celtic!
Looking at those rankings, sevco are twice as likely to qualify for the UCL this season as Celtic!
Mr. Lawwell eases himself back into his comfy chair, complete in the knowledge that Celtic are a World Class Club, with all the co-efficients to prove it!
But he knows he has watched impassively and silently, from the sidelines with a Poker Face, while our historical rivals have not only stolen a march on us, but have beaten us firmly into second place in a two horse race!