NEIL LENNON has criticised UEFA for favouring Europe’s biggest leagues when it comes to Champions League participation, a process which he believes is damaging football.

Successful qualification for Celtic into the group stages of the prestigious tournament involves eight games, a marathon process that begins long before squads are settled and competitive football has begun.

“I think it’s damaging the game the way it’s now set up,” said the Celtic manager. “It’s unfair. Even three or four years ago, I was at the Uefa convention and teams like Shakhtar Donetsk were making a case that they weren’t getting a fair enough crack of the whip either.

“It’s the Champions League and we are the champions of Scotland and have been consistently. I’m watching a fixture the other day – PSV against Basel. That would grace any Champions League group.

“It’s incredible really. And it’s only going to get tougher. We are aware of the importance but also the difficulty of these things. If we qualified, and it’s still a big if, that’s eight games. That’s a quarter of a season before a ball is really kicked in anger in your domestic campaign.”

For the second successive season four out of the big five leagues in Europe have four automatic qualification places directly into the group stages, despite the fact there can be a significant gap between the champions of the respective leagues and those who finish below.

Valencia finished 26 points behind Barcelona, while this season’s Champions League finalists Spurs finished 27 points adrift of Premier League winners Manchester City. It was a similar story in Germany – Bayern Leverkusen were 20 points behind winners Bayern Munich and in Italy Inter Milan were 21 points shy of Seria A champions Juventus.

By contrast, the champions of Scotland, Sweden, Serbia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia all face lengthy journeys to secure a Champions League invitation.

Former Romanian international Dan Petrescu, manager of FC Cluj whom Celtic are set to play in the third qualifying round if the Romanians prevail against Maccabi Tel Aviv, has also lamented the way the process has been stacked in favour of the bigger clubs this week.

“We fight like a lunatic one year, we become champions and then wake up every two days on planes,” said Petrescu, who made his first-team debut the month after Steaua Bucharest became European champions in 1986.

His complaints did not go unnoticed by Lennon who was quick to concur.

“I see Dan Petrescu having a bit of a complaint about that and he’s right,” the Celtic manager said. “When you are champions of your country you shouldn’t have to play four qualifiers to make the group stage. However, that’s where we are. We’re nearly half way there although there could be another difficult tie ahead of us.

“Spurs’ argument would be that they made the Champions League final but there’s a to and a fro for that. It’s such a difficult thing to do. It’s really difficult to balance it as well with the squad and the league games as well. If you finish fourth in one country, you qualify. I think that’s unfair. I really do. No matter how difficult people may say the Premier League is.

“Winning the championship in any domestic league is difficult. People sort of poo-poo what we do. Juventus, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Real Madrid have all dominated the landscape in their own countries for a long time. Why should we be any different to them and be treated differently?”

Lennon has taken Celtic into the group stages – and out of the group stages – in his first spell as Celtic manager and also experienced playing in the tournament when Martin O’Neill’s Parkhead team were the first to qualify for the competition.

And he has stressed just how vital it is to the development of the players and the exposure of the club but appreciates that there is still some distance for Celtic to go before they can congratulate themselves on getting there once again.

“Like I say, the rewards are great,” he said. “Once you are in there you can really enjoy it and let loose. We’re doing the hard yards at the minute. We’re making good inroads. It’s been a very good start.”