http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/42292297
What's changing?
From next season, the champions of Scotland will enter qualifying in the first round, meaning they will have to come through four qualifiers just to get to the group stage.
That's a round earlier than Celtic have had to play in recent seasons and, although Rodgers' side, assuming they win the Scottish Premiership, are likely to be seeded throughout qualifying, it is another obstacle in the way of Champions League lucre.
This is all about accommodating the biggest and richest clubs in Europe's most powerful leagues.
Four teams from Spain, Germany, England and Italy will each qualify automatically for the group stage.
France and Russia will have two representatives apiece while the champions of Portugal, Ukraine, Belgium and Turkey also go straight into the competition proper.
That leaves the champions of the remaining European leagues battling it out to join them.
Champions' route challenge
The reality is that clubs progressing through the champions' route rarely make a successful impact on the group stage.
This season is the ninth since it was introduced and, in that time, Celtic are one of only four teams (and the most recent in 2012-13) to make it to the last 16.
APOEL won their group the year before, while Copenhagen and Olympiacos are the only others to have progressed.
Celtic's qualification for the Europa League was only the 10th time that had been achieved.
To illustrate more starkly the challenge for the teams emerging via the champions' route, on 31 occasions those clubs have finished bottom of the group, with 21 of those failing to record a single victory.
Of the 270 group matches played by those qualifying through the champions' route, only 37 wins have been recorded.
"Year on year, it's getting more difficult to qualify and when you're in there," added Rodgers. "The financial gaps are increasing every season."
Discuss Scots face tougher challenge after Champions League changes in the Celtic Chat area at TalkCeltic.net.
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Rendog
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Just * our trips to Canada
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As bullshit as it looks on paper the first couple rounds are probably better for us than proper friendlies so whatever.
Kayazziguire, Gyp Rosetti, Saul Goodman and 1 other person like this. -
Only 13 teams that qualify will be champions now. Half the teams will be from the 4 biggest leagues .
Absolute madness this was allowed to happen. The time for an atlantic league is now, if uefa don't like it tell them to * offfreitassen likes this. -
Teams that are already into 1st round of 2018-19 CL are
BATE Borisov
Sherriff Tiraspol
Malmo
Rosenborg
HJK
Vikingur
Sudova
Cork City
Spartaks Jurmala
Valur
Flora Tallinn
Torpedo Kurtaisi
We will be seeded above all of them -
The bigger issue is that only 4 teams now qualify from Champions Route, rather than the 5 as currently - so the potential opponent pool during the PO round is just going to be that much tougher than it used to be. IMO the additional round of qualifying doesn't make much of a difference.
Markybhoy and Random Review like this. -
* competition. They need to change the name now because champions simply dont get in.
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Yeah it really should be the European Super League or something like that by now.
Inevitable this would happen due to the awful performances of Scottish teams in Europe. We're by a billion miles the best performing Scottish team in Europe, and have won 1 of our last 12 CL group games. -
Jack Torrance Heeeeeere's Johnny! Gold Member
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Have been saying it for years, its not the champions league, its the europe league cup! TBH, i * hate it. All this * you cant play this team or that team and champions of some leagues dont automatically get in yet 4th placed teams and uefa cup winners get in. *! Everyone should be * into a hat, and teams pulled out against each other like it used to be!freederry20 and freitassen like this. -
Gabriel Beidh an lá linn Gold Member
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This couples with us not be straddled with the country co-efficient is a positive
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Callum McGregor The Captain Gold Member
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There will come a time where it becomes almost impossible for us to qualify.
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Disagree completely - the reworked club coefficient effectively only helps us in group stage pot seeding since our old club coefficient was already high enough to ensure we were seeded in qualification anyway.
For example, this year (even under the old club coefficient rules), we had the 4th highest seed - so even with the new CL qualifying system, we would have been guaranteed being seeded through PO round. But as I mentioned before, under the new system with only 8 clubs (instead of 10) entering PO round the potential opponent pool during PO is going to be that much tougher, plus with the new system we have an entire added round of qualifying to trip us up.
Yes, under the new coefficient system we would have been Pot 3 in UL GS (I believe both this year and last as well). But no way is the chance at a slightly better CL GS pot seeding worth a potentially harder qualification path. The most important thing for us as a club is that we qualify for CL GS every year and get the $$$$.littlekennie likes this. -
Gabriel Beidh an lá linn Gold Member
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It's not really that much harder as the extra round will be against a potentially weaker team than the like of Linfield. Pot 3 greatly improves our chances of EL football or even knockout stages of the CL. -
I said the same thing about the extra qualification round in my post #6 but (as I also mentioned in that post) the much bigger deal is the fewer qualification spots and also thus increased strength of teams in PO round. You can't just gloss over how big a deal that is.
I have said many times that our goal as a club should be to be in Europe after Christmas but it is far more important to qualify for CL, period. Losing 20% of the qualification slots available is a huge detriment to that.Gabriel likes this. -
It feels almost inevitable that it will soon become all but a closed shop. Perhaps a token cannon fodder team or two but the whole competition is being carved up to protect the interest of the richest clubs.
And the argument that will be made to support it becomes self fulfilling. If the rich get richer each year then pumpings to poorer clubs get bigger, which then supports the idea of fewer teams from smaller leagues. We are probably already at a stage where 4th pot teams are too far behind to even compete, especially in a rigged draw. They will eventually get rid of these smaller champions and replace them with bigger clubs that are finishing 3rd, 4th, or 5th in bigger leagues.Liam Scales and Gil-Scott Heron like this. -
Gabriel Beidh an lá linn Gold Member
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Missed that part of the post for some reason. I wasn't aware that we were losing two slots to "the elite". I notice the Dutch also have no CL spot. Maybe it's time for us to join them and set something up before they destroy our clubs. It seems to be a case of having no choice but to do our own thing along with other clubs in a similar position or accept that we are a small club with no potential to even be classed in the top 50 European clubs. -
Champions league is boring as * recently. Dunno if that just coz we are losing! But even the knockouts have been *.
So we are in 1QR now? Should get through it no bother but disgrace Champions and former winners have to play 4 Rounds. -
ILoveTheCeltic
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Aye the additional round is irrelevant but as you say the final round or two will be more difficult.
If 4 of Basel, PSV/Ajax, Olympiacos, Salzburg, Ludogorets, Sparta Prague and Copenhagen win their Leagues then we will be unseeded in the play-off round meaning we are likely to draw one of them. -
I agree. I think the group stages have become utterly dull. It feels like the seeding ensures every top seed only need to turn up, every bottom seed turns up to get pumped and try to not finish bottom, and only in a few groups are the 2nd and 3rd pots actually in a competition. For the vast majority of teams who have any chance of winning, the tournament doesn't really start until after the groups. Most games until then feel like a bit of a waste of timeLuis1967 likes this.
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