Celtic outlines potential plans for premiership – they did not see this coming

Celtic outlines potential plans for premiership – they did not see this coming

With a point, Celtic will be officially crowned the Scottish Premiership champions for the third consecutive year. After that, thoughts will likely turn to the Champions League draw, though maybe not too soon because there is still the Scottish Cup Final against Rangers to come. If Celtic wins, they will automatically qualify for the Champions League group stage. Otherwise, everything will change because UEFA is changing (let’s just say “improving”) the structure of three of their club competitions. Instead of eight groups of four with two moving on to the knockout rounds, there will be one large league of 36 teams.

Eight distinct opponents, one from each of the four pots, will be faced by each team. The top 8 teams advance to the round of 16. There is no Europa League safety net to lessen the pain for 25–36, therefore 9–24 will compete in two-leg playoffs to earn a spot in the final 16.

The pot in which you are drawn in the new structure is less important than it was in the old one because you still play two teams from your own area. Celtic will probably fall into pot 4 after some of the more experienced players are confirmed as qualifying, but it won’t have a significant impact on their chances. They are now in pots 3 and 4. Twenty of the thirty-six players are confirmed; the predicted pots are determined by which players, based on current standings, are most likely to be drawn.

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