SCOTT BROWN insists Premiership teams must start delivering in Europe to boost Scotland’s hopes of regular group-stage involvement.
Celtic must negotiate FOUR qualifying rounds this season to reach the Champions League.
The Hoops have been the only Scottish side to make the group stage of either European tournament for the past seven years.
Brown, 33, said: “It just gets harder and harder for us to get in.
“Until everyone else starts helping us out, and we could have done better with Scotland in the past few years which would help us out, too.
“In the past, two Scottish teams were in the Champions League, so here’s hoping we can go back to getting right into the group stage, but you never know.
“You’ve just got to take every game as it comes because there are some top quality teams in it, so whoever we play we’ve got to be on our A game, make sure we’re ready and as fit as we possibly can be.”
Celtic hold a 3-0 first-leg lead in their first qualifying round tie as they prepare for tonight’s return with Armenia’s Alashkert at Parkhead.
Barring a disaster, they will face old foes Rosenborg or Valur in the second round with the Icelandic outfit a goal ahead from the first leg.
Brown added: “There’s more and more money going into the game, so it’s getting harder as other teams’ budgets are a lot higher than ours.
“But we’ve got a great bunch of lads, good management and staff and the club is going in the right direction, so we should be pushing that as far as we can.
“We need to make sure we’re still getting into the Champions League so we can get that pot of money as it’s huge for this club to invest in players, in the training ground and the young players coming through, as well.”
