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Millions on line for Celtic as CL qualifiers pivot

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By on CQN BLOG & Comments

Sustained football success is all about the money.  Any team can do a St Johnstone, win three trophies in a decade to become Scotland’s second most decorated club in that era, but if you don’t have the income, you will revert to a lowly mean soon enough.

This season’s Champions League qualification ties, therefore, are vitally important in determining the structural advantage Celtic have over would-be rivals.

Newco opened strongly against Union Saint-Gilloise.  The Belgians, playing in front of their home fans, clearly set out a stall to inhibit the visitors and play on the counter.  This paid dividends 27 minutes in when calamitous defensive gaps allowed Union to score their first ever European goal (they lost both legs to Juventus 1-0 in their previous tie 58 years ago).

Union’s penalty clearly shocked Newco, not to mention their former players in the Premier Sports studio.  That’s not the kind of decision that goes against this team in domestic football and they were not happy seeing “rules” catch them out, which an infuriated Kenny Miller bemoaned after the game.

Long before the second goal arrived, Newco were a diminished force.  They have played only four games since last season, Union played twice as many.  The contrasting fitness was clear as the game concluded with Union creating openings that could have put the tie to bed.  This short Newco preseason looked like a potential mistake beforehand, four games is not enough to get a squad fully fit.

As it stands, Newco retain a fighting chance of qualifying for the play-off round.  If they get there, they earn a €5m bonus, plus gate money.  Failure against Union, and they go straight to the Europa League, no bonus payment and not even a play-off round to generate gate money.  If Celtic are the only Scottish team to reach the CL Group Stage, they retain the entire Scottish TV pot, which would be worth an extra €3m to Celtic.

Make no mistake, we have a real and active interest in the Champions League qualifiers.  These figures are huge factors in determining competitive outcomes in Scotland.  There is a spreadsheet somewhere in Govan that no one will open today.

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  1. An Tearmann on

    St.Stivs

     

     

    Thanks,some image indeed.makes you think all those fresh faced kids now in 60s/70s.time eh.

     

    God bless big Yogi,always a gentleman.forever a Celt

     

     

    HH

  2. Aipple on

    GENE on 3RD AUGUST 2022 12:53 PM

     

    I remember Leicester had an inflatable cover over their pitch to keep the frost out

     

     

    —————————

     

     

    Correction to the above. It’s a gas bag and it is called Brendan.

  4. bigrailroadblues on

    What’s this? A swally being arranged while I’m in Ireland and not even having a beer? Is there no end to this folly? Harrumph!

  5. garygillespieshamstring on

    Prestonpansbhoys

     

     

    Me too. Worst season watching Celtic (including 20/21) and didn’t miss a game in Scotland.

  7. big wavy on

    Ugh Paul67,

     

     

    Shocking amount of hubris on show today. I enjoyed last night but the huns are capable of beating a pretty mediocre USG team that was on show last night. I hope they don’t, I hope the lack of creativity, fitness and poor formation cost them but papped out is far from a gimme.

     

     

    Regardless of what might be, give Ange more bloody investment to plug the obvious recruitment problems we still have – MF, Winger and Striker in mind.

     

     

    HH

  8. Melbourne Mick on

    NOTTACLUE1

     

     

    Late answer from last blog.

     

    I think big Jimmy, myself, and many others on here have benefitted

     

    from life’s experiences and maybe it gives us oldies the edge with

     

    quips, jokes stories or as you say anecdotes.

     

    Here’s another “ YOGI “ one

     

    The day of the game Celtic hammered Aberdeen and big John decided

     

    it was the sannies for him, our amateur game had been cancelled due

     

    to the icy conditions, so it was straight to Celtic park with our team.

     

    Not even a snow plough could have cut through the dons the way Yogi

     

    did with his ‘ different ‘ footwear, it was unbelievable.

     

    So much so that half our team turned up with pure white sandshoes for

     

    our next game at black ash Plantation Park, it was still Baltic the whole

     

    week but a unexpected morning thaw made the park a mud bath.

     

    Did they bring their studded boots just in case ?

     

    Naw, so you can imagine the carnage that was inflicted upon a bunch of

     

    idiots, was I one of those idiots ?

     

    You decide 🤪

     

    H.H. Mick

  9. Tom McLaughlin on

    ST TAMS on 3RD AUGUST 2022 12:19 PM

     

    We should be miles ahead of them, in every way . But we’re not and that’s down to the Lawwell and the board.

     

     

    We have won 10 of the last 11 league titles; recently won 4 trebles on the trot; beat them 5-1 at Ibrox, 4-0 at Hampden and 5-0 and 5-1 at home. They have won 2 trophies in the last 10 years.

     

     

    How far ahead can we possibly go?

  11. DeniaBhoy on

    No one pulled me up on my forecast of sevco winning 3-1?

     

    So I assume that would mean 3-3 on agg and ET, penalties, no?

     

    Whatever, I just assume that somehow they’ll sneak through. They then get PSV who will somehow fail to beat them as well due to a COVID outbreak.

  12. The returnof weeron on

    POR CIERTO on 3RD AUGUST 2022 9:29 AM….

     

     

    Thanks for taking the time to read my comments on the Celtic Board. I think that it is fair to say that Celtic have been very conservative financially, probably for most of the Club’s existence. My take is that the current phase of this began on the full time whistle in Seville. So, you are correct saying that Brian Quinn was Chairman during some of these years.

     

     

    He was a skilled operator who understood the circumstances under which the Board could be moved into a (temporary) faster lane. He took that opportunity when it arose.

     

     

    Of course, he was right in saying that the Club could not sustain losing several millions pounds every year. What he was unable to do was to convince the Board that we needed to grow the Club in a significant way. While we did improve our revenues during his tenure (shirt deals, advertising etc), it wasn’t the quantum shift that some of us hoped for.

     

     

    Personally, I don’t think that this (almost) permanent ‘slow lane’ approach is good for Celtic. There is a cyclic alternative that could/should help us attain better results in Europe. However, it is what it is, and I think that we were fortunate to have Brian Quinn in the Chair.

     

     

    Just my 2 cents.

  14. big wavy on

    Oh yeah, on a day we speak about Europe, we shouldn’t let facts about Europe dictate our little parochial battle with Sevco in Scotland.

     

     

    I’d much prefer to look out into Europe as a measurement of ongoing progress. For our sake. We’ve underperformed.

     

     

    HH

  15. glendalystonsils on

    DENIABHOY on 3RD AUGUST 2022 2:03 PM

     

     

    I’m not so sure . I’m hoping they used up all their luck last season by getting to the final after amassing fewer points in the groups than we did .

     

     

    All the same , I would feel a lot happier if the wee Union CF had buried his gilt edged chance.

  18. garygillespieshamstring on

    When Brian Quinn was chairman, he was more than happy to engage with supporters, even when he was just in BB’s for a couple of beers after a match.

     

    My own experience of Fergus on a couple meetings with him was the same.

     

     

    That makes Brian Quinn a better chairman for me.

  23. prestonpans bhoys on

    SAINT STIVS on 3RD AUGUST 2022 1:33 PM

     

     

    Correction, Old Firm FC didn’t win the Scottish Cup, they were Scottish Cup Champions, another first😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

  24. MadMitch on

    BQ was brought in to put a leash on MO’N.

     

    MO’N had broken DD’s heart so something had to be done.

     

    We managed to generate £2mill of cash on the road to Seville.

     

     

    But there was to be no spending allowed — cue the JMcF debacle.

     

    So a tired squad — no LuMo replacement — was expected to have another go.

     

     

    MO’N and the team were fired up after coming so close but they only lasted 6 months aided by the miracle that was LM — he signs up for MU and the team starts to deflate no matter the effort put in by the newbie SP.

     

     

    All down to BQ being brought in to control MO’N and keep the spending down.

     

    BQ was good at the job he was asked to do just a case that was not to improve the team.

     

     

    Good at tactics / bad at strategy.

  29. westcraigs on

    Tom.

     

    Given the enormous financial advantage we had over sevco we should be going for 20 in a row.

     

    We blew it.

  30. Celtic Mac on

    Dara O Briain was on NewsNight last night reacting to the news that the BBC was ending ‘Mock the Week’

     

    And replacing it with a new show hosted by Frankie Boyle called …..’Mock the Woke’

     

    You couldnae make it up!

  32. bournesouprecipe on

    No team has the right to win it’s league title every year, only Sevco could win 55 in one year.

  34. An Dún on

    The Belgians look to be more than capable going to Ibrox and see the job through. For all talk of atmosphere – get through the opening twenty minutes unscathed and it turns on them in a big way.

     

     

    The finances are of course key as no doubt were they make the next round, they’ll be using those funds to buy a player, several players were they to make the group stage.

     

     

    If they’re consigned to defending their Europa runners up trophy then playing Sundays gives us the key advantage of playing before them for 6 weekends before the shut down.

  35. An Dún on

    WESTCRAIGS on 3RD AUGUST 2022 3:00 PM

     

    Tom.

     

     

    Given the enormous financial advantage we had over sevco we should be going for 20 in a row.

     

     

    We blew it

     

     

    —-

     

     

    That financial advantage was negated by their willingness to fund losses year on year.

  38. fourstonecoppi on

    442 PARK THE BUS on 3RD AUGUST 2022 3:18 PM

     

     

    Aye…but whats your plan to take Scotland forward?

  40. 67 European Cup Winners on

    Nice to be back after the break. The lead story today is why my only contribution to this site last season was “win the league” Funny enough it could be the same this season The Huns are in trouble already. Great to see. 67ECW

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