CELTIC will be seeded for the Champions League play-off which is scheduled for early August.
The Hoops secured their position in the elite competition with two games to manoeuvre before the £40million league stages.
Goals from Arne Engels (pen), Daizen Maeda and Callum Osmand got the job done in the 3-1 win over Hearts at Parkhead yesterday to seal their fifth successive title.
The Edinburgh side went into the match with a one-point advantage, but, despite opening the scoring through Lawrence Shankland, they collapsed late in the second-half when Martin O’Neill’s stepped up the pressure.
Scotland’s title kings – with a record 56 crowns – missed out on the cash bonanza of European football’s most prestigious tournament when they went out at the qualifying stage to the minnows of Karat Almaty, of Kazakhstan, early in the season.
DREAM COME TRUE…Martin O’Neill with his fourth Premiership title.
The team, then managed by Brendan Rodgers, fired blanks in both games before blowing THREE penalty-kicks – Adam Idah, Luke McCowan and Maeda the culprits – in the shoot-out.
Seeded in the Champions Path play-off round, the Parkhead men will face one of five unseeded opponents with the ties due on August 3 and August 18/19, according to the Daily Record.
At the moment, Norwegian champions Viking are the only confirmed side the Hoops could face.
Greek title winners AEK Athens and the victors of the Austrian Bundesliga – either LASK or Sturm Graz – are also in the Champions Path, although their seeding status will depend on results in the earlier qualifying rounds.
AEK could yet move into the seeded section if one of Red Star Belgrade, Dinamo Zagreb, Slovan Bratislava or Lech Poznan crash out in the second qualifying round.
Celtic are guaranteed a place in the Europa League if they fail again at the qualifying stage of the top competition.
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