Celtic could see boost to Champions League status
Celtic have a few big matches ahead of them, but with the Scottish Premiership title all locked up it never hurts to look to the future for the club.
That future will include a long summer attempting to navigate other champions en route to the UEFA Champions League.
Should Celtic make it to the Champions League group state, a report from the Daily Record notes that the Hoops will see a boost in their chances. That’s because Celtic will likely see their club co-efficient be high enough to prop them up to the third pot.
That is something that hasn’t happened since the Bhoys reached the group stage back in the 2008-09 campaign.
According to the Daily Record, Celtic’s current co-efficient sits at 42.785 and in 47th place in the UEFA standings. The paper notes that Borussia Monchengladbach was the lowest of the teams in the third pot last season, putting up a co-efficient of 42.035.
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That number is nearly equal to what the Bhoys have for this upcoming campaign and should see them in to the third pot of teams.
So, why does that look so promising for Celtic? Doing the math of the teams ranked ahead of Celtic, there are at least 20 of them right now that won’t be making it to the Champions League and/or look unlikely to qualify at this point.
That’s a huge boost to the chances, as that would put Celtic in the 27th best spot of the 32 teams just based off of current club co-efficient rankings. But, roadblocks like Arsenal making a run to a top 4 spot and somehow Zenit St. Petersburg and Fiorentina finding their way to the final spots in their respective leagues could spell disaster to this idea.
Additionally, a Manchester United run to the Europa League title would also open up another spot for the English sides and likely shove Celtic back to pot 4.
But, chances of all of that happening and dislodging the Bhoys from pot 3 seem pretty slim at this point.
There is also the matter of Celtic’s route to even making it to the group stage in the first place.
With only 15 spots available through the play-off route, Celtic are going to see increased competition. However, if this side can navigate its way to the group stage it could see itself in an much more advantageous spot for the group stage next season.