RANGERS boss Mark Warburton believes Celtic have taken a major step forward on behalf of Scottish football - but he is not fretting about their potential £30million Champions League windfall.
The Hoops will join Europe's elite clubs in Thursday's group-stage draw for UEFA's top competition after dumping out Israeli champions Hapoel Be'er Sheva over a two-legged play-off.
Celtic's success will earn the rest of the Ladbrokes Premiership teams - including the Light Blues - a £250,000 UEFA bonus as well as a vital shot in the arm for Scotland's flagging coefficient.
Read more: Matt Crooks hopes the road to recovery leads to an Old Firm debut for Rangers
But it will also flood the Parkhead coffers with millions of pounds in TV cash and prize money.
What is a boost for the nation's European standing could also turn out to be a blow for Gers' title hopes if Celtic are able to reinvest that jackpot into Brendan Rodgers' playing squad.
However, Warburton is refusing to panic.
He said: "It's a positive. It's a Scottish club progressing to the Champions League group stages.
"It absolutely has to be a positive. It would be stupid to say anything other than that.
"But I can't control it so I'm never going to worry about Aberdeen, Hearts, Celtic or anyone else.
"Nothing we can do here can control what happens away from us, so all we can focus on is what we can control.
"We'll concentrate on our training, our work here, the analysis and all the other things we do.
"But away from us, why worry about it?"
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel