Celtic captain Scott Brown is horrified by the idea that a new European Super League could be formed exclusively for sides from Italy, Germany, Spain, England and France, effectively excluding Celtic from the Champions League.
The suggestion from Karl-Heinze Rummenigge, chairman of Bayern Munich and the ECA – the European Club Association – would mean that champions of smaller countries like Scotland would be denied access to Europe’s premier club tournament.
Brown says that any attempt to block historically large European teams like Celtic from the Champions League would be a disaster not only for his club, but for the tournament as well. He points to the glowing terms in which superstars like Barcelona's Lionel Messi still refer to their experience of playing at Celtic Park as proof that the tournament would be robbed of something special if Celtic were to be forever on the outside looking in.
He said: "It suits them, eh? It’s not really the Champions League anymore if they do that.
“It should be the champions of every country in it. It is always hard already, because England, Germany, Spain and Italy have four teams.
“We have to get through three qualifying rounds, so it is always hard to take. You look back to the good old days when the champions went straight in to the tournament. So it’s a hard one to hear about this new plan and hopefully UEFA don’t go with it.
“It would be terrible. I know we haven’t made it for the last two years but not to have it ever again would be gutting for everyone.
“We would all be disappointed – I would be and the fans would feel it as well. Lionel Messi said that playing at Parkhead was one of the highlights of his career, but that was just because he was playing against me!
“But that just shows how different grounds and different clubs make it the tournament it is and we should definitely have at least the opportunity to play in the Champions League.”
Brown has been irked by suggestions that clubs from less fashionable leagues like the Scottish Premiership are somehow less worthy of their place among the European elite as their counterparts from the continent’s major leagues.
He says that the scale of Celtic’s support automatically makes them one of the biggest clubs in Europe, regardless of which domestic league they play in, and that it is precisely the special Champions League nights under the lights at Celtic Park that underline his point.
He said: “The size of our support makes us one of the biggest clubs in Europe and they follow us wherever they go. They’ve been brilliant and caused no trouble whatsoever.
"It’s easy for clubs who are automatically in the tournament year after year to decide that they’re the only ones who should be in it but it’s not right. This isn’t just about Celtic – there are other big clubs like Ajax and Benfica and Porto, who have also been European champions. It just sounds like someone’s had a great idea and it’s gone pear-shaped.
“The fans at Celtic Park are incredible on Champions League nights,” he added.
“If you ask opposition players, they struggle with it. The fans sing their hearts out for 90 minutes and get right behind us. They are our 12th man and that’s what has got us points in the Champions League in the past. That’s why we want to be in the Champions League again, because we miss those days.
“Just to hear the Champions League music at Celtic Park and have those fans behind you is something special.”
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