Scottish Teams route to the European group stages.

It's nearly that time again. The Europa League qualifiers start as early as the end of this month for Rangers and St. Johnstone. Celtic and Aberdeen will start their campaigns on the 11/12 and 13th of July respectively.

So who could they face? Can St Johnstone,Aberdeen or Rangers get a much welcomed Europa League cash boost - and how much would they earn?

Can Celtic stretch the financial disparity even further and make it into the Champions League again?


Firstly, I'll focus on the Champions League and Celtic -

The Champions League group stage beckons.

Celtic will be seeded all they way through the qualification process and should make it that bit easier.

2nd Round Champions Route
5 winners from round 1 will join Celtic.

Since the draw is regionalised, Celtic can only play teams from Northern Europe in rd. 2 - Assuming the seeded teams go through, Round 2 will look a little like this

The teams underlined above would be my best guess Celtics Likely opponents. Exit at this stage and there is no Europa League parachute. They would receive a paltry £280,000

3rd Round Champions Route. 

The 3rd Round is somewhat harder to predict as the draw is made before the ties from the 2nd Round are completed. meaning both teams from each ties co-efficients are carried over. For example; if Malmo drew Linfield - Both teams co-efficient for round 3 would be 20.595.

Again - assuming the seeded teams go through, the seedings for round 3 might look a little like this.

This is now an open draw. Celtic could theoretically draw any of the unseeded sides.
Notably Astana, Rosenborg, Be'er Sheva or even the Romanian champions Viitorul. Its also worth noting that it is possible for the bottom seeded sides to drop into the unseeded side of the draw. There is no eventuality that would lead Celtic to being unseeded, However.
 If Celtic were to exit at this stage they would enter the Europa league play-off round and receive £360,000 + any prize money earnt through the Europa league.

The playoff round - 180 minutes and a potential £25 million. That's before gate receipts and performance bonuses. Some tricky ties for the Champions - but it's more than achievable

Celtic are probably the best equipped they have been for these qualifiers for years, however, this looks to be the toughest qualifying campaign since the champions route was introduced.

Later in the week, I'll look at the Europa league and St Johnstone, Aberdeen and Rangers chances of playing European football beyond August.