Report: Celtic have been working for years to shake up UEFA Champions League

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Celtic are hoping to lead the way in changing the European competition forever.

FC Copenhagen’s head of international cooperation, Daniel Rommedahl, says that Celtic have been working for years to help make sweeping changes to the UEFA Champions League, The Daily Record report.

The paper say that failure to reach the group stages of the competition will see the Hoops miss out on a massive £35m.

Celtic have failed to make it past the qualifiers in four of the last six seasons and it appears some at the club feel the process is unfairly balanced against historically big clubs from smaller nations.

Along with Ajax and Copenhagen, Rommedahl reckons that Celtic want to smash the current model and ensure some power is taken away from super elite sides like Real Madrid and Juventus.

As quoted by The Daily Record, he said: “We have been working for three years with Celtic and Ajax to deliver these proposals. This way there is no free entry for a Real Madrid or a Juventus if they do not deliver in their own leagues.

“UEFA feel they are uncertain whether the tournament will be attractive enough if all the big clubs are not involved in the Group Stages and they wonder whether it will provide enough TV money.

“But in this way, the tournament is turned into a financial discussion. We believe sporting integrity needs to be met more than it does at present.”

What changes are the clubs looking to make?

The Daily Record believe that the group want to see qualification for the group stages based on club coefficients rather than nation based coefficients, which is the current system.

Alongside that, the paper report that the trio are eager to see the automatic qualification spots for group stages reduced from a hefty 26 to a more reasonable 20.

That would mean teams from bigger nations who finish well off the pace domestically would not be guaranteed to take their place in the group stages, democratising the whole process a little.

Clearly the changes would be a benefit to Celtic, even if it would still be a difficult challenge to make it to the lucrative part of the competition.

Can Peter Lawwell, who was recently appointed to UEFA’s Professional Football Strategy Council, lead the way and boost the Hoops’ hopes of being a regular at the highest European level?