The winners of the Scottish Premiership this season are guaranteed a place in next season’s Champions League group stages, but only as long as the winner of this year’s competition also qualifies automatically through their league.
Due to European coefficients, 24 of the 26 automatic places will go to teams in England, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Portugal, Netherlands, Russia, Belgium and Austria. It leaves two available, which are reserved for the Champions League and Europa League winners.
However, since 2012, every Champions League winner has qualified through their league too so the place would go to the next country on the list, which next year will be Scotland.
There is, however, the risk of the winner failing to qualify through their league placing, as it did with Chelsea ten years ago. If that happens, the Premiership title holders would be placed in the playoff round but Celtic supporters will be hoping that such an unfortunate set of circumstances doesn’t happen if they finish top of the table.
Getting to the group phase will be worth up to £40m and that could provide a massive boost to the Hoops’ finances, especially after suffering through the global health crisis.
