THE Champions League is awash with silly money which is what makes it so serious.

It is why Celtic are not only playing for football reasons this evening and next Tuesday, although that is the most important thing even in such, but beating Astana is going to make the club an awful lot richer.

Here is a breakdown of what Celtic could earn, although some figures have still to be confirmed.

Play-off: This is the round Brendan Rodgers’s side are in. If they beat the men from Kazakhstan then they will earn €2m and €3m if they lose to Astana, which for the moment we will ignore.

UEFA have a fixed amount of €761.9 to be shared among the teams who make it to the group stages.

Group Stage: Each of the 32 teams last season were guaranteed €12.7m. The “performance bonus” was €1.5m for every win and €500,000 for every draw. The only question is by how much it will go up this time…

And if Brendan Rodgers can do what Gordon Strachan and Neil Lennon did before him, and reach the last 16 which is the Celtic’s best results in the Champions League era, they will earn €6m.

Of course, this is not the only revenue. The television market pool share made €14.3m last year, a figure which is estimated to rise to around €17m for Celtic.

This means, in pounds, shilling and pence, that should the Scottish champions prevail over their next two matches, they will rake in a minimum £28.9m, a figure which does include gate receipts, hospitality packages or matchday revenue

Nor does it include a single point being won over six matches and the three a home are guaranteed to be 60,000 sell-outs. There will not be a seat, be it in the posh bit or anywhere else, lying empty.

It is therefore far from outrageous to say Celtic are looking at a £40m bonus and more..

Celtic gave not been in pot three since the 2008/09 season but this time there is a real chance, albeit there are a few ifs and buts, that is where they will end up if they can get past Astana.

After the early eliminations of Dynamo Kiev and Ajax, Celtic are now the highest placed team in pot four.

What this means is that should any of Sevilla, Napoli, Liverpool or Olympiacos lose their play-off ties over the next seven days, Celtic will get a promotion into pot three

Liverpool faced German side Hoffenheim last night and won 2-1, while tonight Greek champions Olympiacos take on Croatian’s HNK Rijeka, while five-times Europa League winners Sevilla are up against Istanbul Basaksehir.

A country’s representation in the Champions League is determined by its UEFA coefficient ranking at the start of the previous season, which is calculated over a five-year basis.