1. Today's win secures 2nd place in the league (yeh, I know) and a shot at CL qualifying.

UEFA have made big changes to the European competitions, starting next season. So here are some tweets to show what Celtic' qualifying route will look like.

Warning - could get messy.

2. What's changed? The Europa League becomes more elite, with entry limited to

- the cup winners from the top 15 leagues
- the best non-CL qualifiers from the top 5 leagues
- teams knocked out of CL qualifying from QR2 onwards

The EL group stage will shrink from 48 to 32 teams.

3. UEFA have introduced a 3rd 32-team tournament - the Europa Conference League (ECL) for

- non-champions & cup winners from non-top 15 nations
- the 2 lowest qualifiers from nations 6-15
- the lowest place qualifier from the top 5
- teams knocked out of EL qualifying

4. In terms of overall qualifying, it's possible for a team to play in all 3 tournaments in the same season.

The full qualifying map can be found at Bert Kassies' brilliant site - link below.

https://kassiesa.net/uefa/files/2021-24-uefa-club-competitions-scheme.png

It's a bit of a mess.

5. Attached is Celtic's qualifying route.

We'll start in Round 2 of the non-champion route of CL qualifying, along with

- the runners-up from Russia, Belgium, Ukraine, Netherlands, Turkey, Austria, Denmark & Czech Republic

- 3rd place from France & Portugal

6. Based on league standings, as of this morning, the other 10 teams in our route of qualifying would be

- PSV, Fenerbahce, Rapid Vienna, Brondby, Sparta Prague, Monaco, Benfica, Spartak Moscow, Antwerp & Shakhtar Donetsk.

This will likely change in the coming weeks.

7. To reach the CL we'd need to beat 3 of these teams.

We will likely be seeded in QR2, have a chance of being seeded in QR3, and be unseeded in the playoff.

But even this is complicated by the draw for each round being made before the previous round is played.

8. Our first tie, QR2, will be on 20/21 & 27/28 July.

Based on the teams above we would play either Sparta Prague, Rapid Vienna, or Brondby.

This first tie is vital. Win it and we're guaranteed a place in the EL groups, at least. Lose, and we face 2 rounds of EL qualifying.

9. Based on the teams above, and assuming the seeds progress from QR2, we would be seeded for QR3 and play one of PSV, Fenerbahce, Spartak Moscow or Antwerp.

Lose here, and we'd skip the playoff and go straight to the EL groups.

10. Should the seeded teams all progress from QR3, we would play either Shakhtar Donetsk or Benfica in the playoff.

If either of those teams lose in QR3, we would play whoever beat them.

Again, lose at this point and we'd go straight into the EL group stage.

11. Just to reiterate, this is all based on current standings, and seeded teams progressing. It could be very different. We might be unseeded in all rounds (unlikely), or from QR3 onwards.

It's just to give an idea of who we could end up having to play.

12. If we lose our first CL tie we drop into QR3 of EL qualifying. Here we would face either one of the other 2 CL QR2 losers from those teams listed above, or the Czech Cup Winner.

We would face either a top-15 cup winner, or a champions league dropout in the EL playoff.

13. If we lose in the EL QR3 we drop to the ECL playoff. If we lose in the EL playoff we'd be guaranteed a place in the ECL group stage.

Yeh, I know. I lost you about 5 tweets ago. The qualifying process has become a nightmare to talk about now.

14. The short of it is that we only need to win 1 tie to guarantee group football of some kind.

- 3 CL wins = CL groups
- 1 CL win = EL groups
- 0 CL win's, 2 EL wins = EL groups
- 0 CL win's, 1 EL win = ECL groups
- 0 CL/EL wins, 1 ECL win = ECL groups
- 0 wins = laughing stock

15. It's worth noting that if this season's EL winner also qualifies for next season's CL group stage via their league then the 3rd place French team will skip qualifying and be given a CL group place.

This could have implications for which teams are seeded in CL QR3.

16. Using the same teams as above as an example, if Monaco don't need to qualify it would mean that

- Benfica skip QR3
- PSV would move from being unseeded to seeded in QR.

It could be us gaining that advantage - not that it's helped us much recently.

17. Given both our recent history in CL qualifying, and the expected turnover of staff and players this season, it can be fairly argued that

- reaching the CL is probably beyond us
- the league is more important than europe altogether

Just to save you typing it.

18. Finally, important dates for the CL attached. The CL will continue to be played on Tuesday/Wednesday, the EL/ECL on Thursday.

Relevant EL & ECL dates are 1 day after the CL dates shown. But EL qualifying doesn't start until QR3, and there's not ECL prelim.

/END