With the Scottish Premiership now concluded, all but one of our European entrants have been confirmed. The last remaining position will be taken by either Dunfermline Athletic or Hibernian.
A Dunfermline win in the Scottish Cup final next Saturday afternoon would earn them Scotland’s 3rd European entry point - the third qualifying round of the Europa League. A Celtic victory would hand that entry point to Rangers and also reward Hibs with Scotland’s fifth European spot.
If Dunfermline win the Scottish Cup then Hibs don’t enter Europe and Rangers enter in Conference League qualifiers.
There are so many permutations for our clubs in Europe this summer. Scotland could end up with as many as four clubs in the Conference League phase at the same time. It’s unlikely, but we could also have two in the Champions league. Three in the Europa League is also possible, and arguably the optimum outcome from a coefficient-points perspective.
The longest article ever written for the website was published last week: ‘The UEFA Qualifiers’ covers all the details for all Scottish teams.
The current article is the second of five this week, after Hearts’ article yesterday, containing all the information you could possibly want for the Premiership winners, Celtic, covering:
Entry points
Potential play-off opponents; both confirmed and unconfirmed
Potential league phase opponents; UCL & EL
Minimum earnings in each competition
Next summer’s much worse entry points
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Entry Point
For Celtic, their European route is the simplest of all five entrants; win one playoff tie = Champions League phase. Lose the tie and it’s a second consecutive year in the Europa League phase for the Hoops (no further qualifiers needed.)
UEFA typically doesn’t allow Champions League branding in the stadium nor the official anthem to be played in any of the rounds prior to the final playoff round, and so Celtic Park is the only Scottish stadium guaranteed to see and hear this in 2026/27.
Winning the league has markedly improved Celtic’s minimum UEFA earnings next season (from at least €1m to at over €13m), while their chances of reaching the Champions League have substantially increased - given they now have just one tie as a seeded side, rather than potentially three ties through the tougher league path.
Celtic are the only one of Scotland’s five entrants that are guaranteed not to be playing in the Conference League next season.
The “Champions path” of Champions League qualification is preferable, and not just because it means you’ve won your league. Firstly there are five league phase spots via this route, compared to just two in the “league path”. This means there are more seeded teams in the playoff round, and so an increased chance of facing a theoretical ‘weaker’ unseeded opponent. There’s also only one tie to play, whereas Scotland’s runners-up Hearts have three ties; although this will get worse for the Champions next summer.
Furthermore, the calibre of teams is generally lower in the Champions path than the league path. While Celtic will face a fellow champion of a non-top 10 league - and so a tie against any league champion will be difficult - they avoid the runners-up from countries like Portugal, Belgium and Turkey as well as the 4th team in France or 3rd in the Netherlands. You’d rather face Viking Stavanger or Omonia Nicosia than Lyon or Sporting Lisbon.
Although Celtic’s own club coefficient is lower than they would like at 58th in Europe, it is still enough to fall on the seeded side of the play-off draw for the second consecutive year. This means they avoid the teams with the highest coefficient and thus the most recent European experience.
However being seeded won’t necessarily mean the ‘easiest’ opponent as, for example, the champions of Slovakia (Slovan Bratislava) are a seeded team that Celtic therefore cannot face, but the Champions of Sweden (Mjallby), Switzerland (Thun), Denmark (AGF) and Norway (Viking Stavanger) would all be possible unseeded opponents that could prove tricky opposition.
The Champions League anthem was written in 1992, based on “Zadok the Priest” which was the anthem written for the coronation of George II in 1727. Its lyrics feature UEFA’s three official languages; English, French and German.
“Ils sont les meilleurs
Sie sind die Besten
These are the champions
Die Meister
Die Besten
Les grandes équipes
The champions”
Potential Play-off Opponents
The following graphic shows where the 40+ Champions across Europe will be seeded, as all leagues currently stand. This excludes the Champions of the top 10 leagues, as they automatically qualify for the Champions League. From this list, we can see the potential opponents that lie in wait for the Scottish Champions.
The graphic shows the four qualifying rounds for the “Champions path”, from QR1 to the playoff, and in which round the Champion of each country enters.
Round entered in is based on country coefficient, while seeded status within each round is based on club coefficient.
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