There are no guarantees we will get an easier game as seeded team in the Champions League qualification round, but Rijeka winning the Croatian league on Sunday to ensure that status is welcome.
Champions League jeopardy works like this: Early qualification rounds promote random sides who are about to embark on an exceptional season. Celtic could be better than 24 of the 25 sides who enter the tournament in an earlier round, or Basel, who enter the playoff round unseeded. But that one side having their exceptional moment that can throw you. It’s usually more than one exceptional side that reaches the playoff.
This is not a problem for all teams, some have a great qualification record. Celtic are very much hit or miss. We even miss against sides no one would regard as exceptional, after beating Celtic in 2018, AEK Athens lost all six group games. Not the worst team ever to compete in the tournament, but still.
If results go to plan, Solvan Bratislava could be back at Celtic Park as a possible unseeded opponent, so could Qarabag and Maccabi Tel-Aviv. We can hope. Basel would be a concern, they finished well above the Young Boys side who troubled us in January. While Sturm Graz edged a competitive Austrian league.
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From previous thread
McPhail Bhoy on 27th May 2025 12:00 pm
I think the issue with GCC is all of the above outlined by various posters but also as the Huns can never behave themselves regardless of if they are celebrating a win or decrying how they were cheated out of a win they look for trouble and are anti-social in the extreme. This then leads to seeing thousands of football supporters out with the stadium anywhere in the city as problematic, not to be encouraged and in fact actively discouraged. So as to continue with the myth that Celtic and Rangers (sic) are as bad as each other and or two sides of the same coin, then all football celebrations out with stadiums have to be clamped down on, discouraged and in no way facilitated, hence the current issue we now have in Glasgow. Lastly the media are too thick/lazy/ full of Huns to report anything different.
Celtic are much better resourced than the possible CL opponents, but as we saw on Saturday you have to utilise the resources.
So, now is the time to get the scouting team all over our possible opponents.
There are 7 or 8 teams we could face. Let’s spend some of our warchest on analysing every detail, and recruiting more scouts. Look at their style of play, strengths , weaknesses right down to which hotels we will use.
If we want to be big time, let’s act like it.
Afternoon all
CL play off round draw is August 4th with games to be played 19-20th August and again a week later. The Scottish transfer window is open from June 12th to August 29th.
Wonder when our signings will be made? Usual mad scramble for loans on the 28th August when we know if we will be playing CL or not, or 3-4 top quality players in for pre-season?
Martindale should not be anywhere near senior football
Remember when, to the Dad’s Army tune we sang this
Who do you think you are kidding mr Waddell , when you say the Celts are done
We are the bhoys who fu##ed your little game
We are the bhoys who are driving you insane
So who do you think you’re kidding Mr Waddel, when you say the Celts are done
KINGLuBO
Yup, nostalgia isn’t what it used to be
I hope we don’t draw Macabi Tel Aviv…If we do the only correct moral stance would be for Celtic to refuse to play and take whatever the consequences are from UEFA…Who knows it might encourage other clubs to demand than Israel be banned from all sport.
If we did go ahead with the fixture it would be the end of Celtic for me…..Of course let’s hope it never happens
Tis what it is.
Solution to the problem.
Be the 10th best country or better in UEFA 5-year coefficient tables …
… which are based on the performance of all clubs in European competition.
(Or just go out and win the Champions League or the Europa League)
… and you’ll get direct entry.
Meanwhile, back to reality.
Respectfully suggest you bookmark this article Paul.
You’ll need an expanded version of it in 2026 and 2027 …
… the expansion covering “how to navigate 2 qualifiers before the play off round”.
BtB
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
https://x.com/67baldytrucker/status/1926723713459732557?s=08
Every trophy lifted and worked hard for
HH
Virtue Signalling Fashions…… MeToo, BLM, “Trans Rights”, and now Israel/Gaza.
Let’s knock this on the head right away.
Play who you’re drawn against and take politics elsewhere.
A club open to all we boast. Except Jews?
It would be a nightmare to draw Maccabi tel aviv. We wouldn’t be allowed into Israel but maybe a neutral venue. The disaster in Amsterdam could well occur in Glasgow. They are a right wing racist team even for israel. We would receive heavy punishment from UEFA for Palestine support stunts
Maybe we would be better served to refuse to play them. Scratching would limit punishments
20% chance of getting them
WHAT IS THE STARZ on 27TH MAY 2025 1:03 PM
I hope we don’t draw Macabi Tel Aviv…If we do the only correct moral stance would be for Celtic to refuse to play and take whatever the consequences are from UEFA…Who knows it might encourage other clubs to demand than Israel be banned from all sport.
If we did go ahead with the fixture it would be the end of Celtic for me…..Of course let’s hope it never happens
………..
WITS
You are one of my favourite posters on here and rarely fail to make me chuckle. However, I can’t agree with your post above.
Like you I hope we avoid Maccabee. It’s a no win situation for Celtic. The whole world knows about the support of a large number Celtic supporters for the plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza. There is enough hatred towards Celtic in Scotland without giving right wingers and establishment people a chance to pile on with negative news and made up rubbish about our fans and the club.
However, I’d be totally opposed to refusing to play them and being forced to withdraw/expelled from the tournament. That’s what would happen in today’s world unlike Bob Kelly’s stance in the 1960s when Iron Curtain country clubs exited the European Cup.
I don’t think Celtic should set themselves up as moral guardians of what’s wrong with the world. We are a football club in Scotland and I don’t think we should sacrifice ourselves when most other clubs wouldn’t. I don’t think there’s any chance of us refusing to play Maccabee due to the structure of Celtic as a PLC. The Board have to represent the best interests of the club’s shareholders and that doesn’t coincide with taking the moral high ground over Gaza.
I’m also disappointed that your support of Celtic is contingent on how they respond to a possible tie with Maccabee.
Rumour Kuhn to Leipzig
As they force us to be competitive in the summer maybe we should play March – November as they do in Ireland. Yeah, ah know, hans christian andersen stuff
So it seems we are just not good enough. How brainy and organised the uefa number crunchers are, with their five year plans. It seems the scottish game really isn’t up to sctratch. However uefa DO think Scotland has reached their standards…….. when it comes to refereeing.
According to Matthew Elder in a short article in The Scotsman ( January 2025), two scottish referees were to be “handpicked” for an advanced course at an elite uefa summit in Athens, Greece. Now I know there are one or two alright men in black or in blue in Scotland these days….. but elite…….But besides that, the article mentions that there would be four at the summit from the English league, which proportionally makes that 2:1….yet when it comes to playing champions league….it´s England 5 Scotland1.
And to be honest I couldn´t care any more, I´ve spent enough summers worrying about Spartak Moscow or Cluj or some two bit team from Scandanavia. I enjoyed and suffered through some of those battles but always hoping the victories would lead to somewhere. We qualified for the later stages of the tournament this season. End of. We should be directly in the group stages again. End of.
But anyway, I´m not in the least bit occupied by this because WE HAVE WON THIS TROPHY AND IN STYLE…….. GOT TO THE FINAL AGAIN……..PLAYED IN TWO MORE SEMI FINALS…….. GOT TO TWO QUARTER FINALS. END OF.
Worth reading the whole article to see the lay of the land my son, that´s the lay of the land my son
THE SCOTSMAN JANUARY 12TH
SFA duo handpicked for advanced course
Two Scottish referees have been identified as being among the best in Europe after receiving a special invite to an elite UEFA summit being held in Greece next month.
John Beaton and Andrew Dallas have been selected for the UEFA advanced course which will take place in Athens from February 3 to 5. Beaton will attend as one of the handpicked category one referees to make the list while Dallas has been included as a VAR participant.
The course is reserved for the top officials on the continent and involves training sessions, presentations, tests and workshops to prepare referees and VARs for the demands of European football’s top competitions.
A total of 75 referees and 14 VAR officials have been selected including four from the English Premier League; namely Michael Oliver, Anthony Taylor, Christopher Kavanagh and Jarred Gillet (VAR).
The Scottish FA duo will also rub shoulders with the likes of Szymon Marciniak, the Polish whistler who officiated the 2022 World Cup final, and French referee Francois Letexier, who became the youngest referee of a Euros final when he was assigned the clash between Spain and England in Germany last summer.
Beaton is already a regular on the UEFA circuit having refereed one Conference League and three Europa League fixtures so far this season. His most recent assignment was Rapid Vienna’s 3-0 home win over FC Copenhagen last month in the final round of the Conference League group stage. He is yet to referee in the Champions League proper but has taken charge of matches in the qualifying rounds.
He is also regularly handed the biggest matches in Scotland and recently officiated the Premier Sports Cup final between Celtic and Rangers at Hampden having been involved in three out of the last four Old Firm derbies.
Dallas, meanwhile, has served as a VAR in the Europa League as well as an assistant VAR in the Champions League. He stepped down as a referee in 2023 due to injury and has since become a dedicated VAR operator. He is the son of Hugh Dallas, the high-profile former Scottish referee who latterly served as a development officer with the Scottish FA and UEFA.
oh the blueroom is bare
craig took the trophies from there …………..
https://x.com/scotlandscoeff1/status/1927336018002288656
last seen on edminston drive, pedalling the saint stephens bike with a sack full of swag and arsemal shares stuffed in the suit pocket.
Bada Bing – Leipzig? Interesting. Maybe we should try a swap deal with Wolfsburg for Cerny 😀
Both have the same default move, cut in along the edge of the box and ping a curling shot with the left.
Cerny could get his bonus payments in squeezy bottles.
No surprise re Kuhn
Astonished the manger kept playing him after he checked out months ago.
Deniabhoy
Hopefully he would have more chance of his alternate squeeze move plying for us than them. lol
If embdae thinks we will withdraw from European competition if we draw an Israeli team,clearly hasn’t been paying attention, or any other team for that matter
RTT- Dallas is definitely ‘handpicked ‘
Bournesouprecipe
Ref Maeda through the middle as striker.
For the rangers game at CP service from wide was as much the issue as Maeda.
We removed Kuhn who was a lazy imposter that day and then took Jota off later.
I can’t think of another game where he let us down as a striker.
Rangers will not be happy as they view beatons league cup final performance as really favouring Celtic.
I hope Brendan and his man have the potential incomes lined up as the dogs in the street have known Kuhn and Maeda were going for some time. Likewise I can’t understand why the Taylor scenario has not been put to bed. Either he stays and fits into a new way of playing once KT arrives or goes.
Surely we have had months to sort that out. I hope he stays.
Incomes = incomers
Burnley78 on 27th May 2025 4:11 pm
Maeda going?
If so, the dogs in the street know more than I do .
TOSB
anyone who is not outraged by what’s happening in Gaza should hang their head in shame.
Football means nothing while children are being burnt alive with weapons and support from.the West..
Allowing Israel to carry on as normal with existing sporting cultural and trade links is being complicit. No ifs buts or maybes.
B78
When have we ever had incomers lined up before the transfer window opens (Ange’s Japanese bhoys apart)
As long as we don’t end up with a PL Willo Flood scenario.
Wits
Uefa should be banning the Israeli teams
Awoody , who said anything about Celtic not being open to people of the Jewish faith , apart from you.
What Isreal is doing to Gaza has nothing to do with faith.
Gene..I agree…
WHAT IS THE STARZ on 27TH MAY 2025 4:14 PM
TOSB
anyone who is not outraged by what’s happening in Gaza should hang their head in shame.
Football means nothing while children are being burnt alive with weapons and support from.the West..
Allowing Israel to carry on as normal with existing sporting cultural and trade links is being complicit. No ifs buts or maybes.
……………..
I am outraged by what’s going on in Israel but I don’t agree that Celtic should refuse to play Maccabi Tel Aviv. Politicians should be sorting this mess out and imposing sanctions as they did with South Africa. It’s not the business of Glasgow Celtic to do so.
Bada Bing
I don’t think we would withdraw if we drew an Israeli team…it is what we should do if we had any morals
I would fully support Cdltic refusing to play Maccabi Tel Aviv , won’t happen mind you.Lets hope they get knocked out before the play off round or even better let’s hope EUFA grow a set and ban Israeli teams from European competitive they did to Russia.Of course EUFA isn’t political except when it suits them.
Gene
I totally agree that UEFA should ban the Israeli teams. They need to show leadership over this matter not Celtic.
TOSB
it is the moral duty of every human being to oppose genocide.
I’m sorry you don’t agree