Scottish title winners face nightmare route into Champions League from 2018 with season beginning in June

Scotland’s Premiership champions could face four qualifying rounds to reach the group stage of the Champions League starting from the 2018/19 season.

In recent years, Scotland’s league winners have had to play three qualifiers resulting in a 10-team champions play-off round.

The changes mean Scottish teams could now start their assault on the tournament as early as June.

Any countries which fall below UEFA ‘s top 17 in terms of co-efficient will have to play four rounds to qualify – with Scotland currently ranked in 25th place.

UEFA have ring-fenced 16 places in the group stage to the top four teams from England, Spain, Italy and Germany as the tournament continues to move away from champions of individual nations to include the biggest teams in the world.

Celtic would benefit from the one new change however – with UEFA’s new seeding system judging teams solely on their own results and taking away the 20 per cent contribution from the national co-efficient.

UEFA proposals which have been ratified will reduce the number of teams to eight in the champions play-off route.

Current champions Celtic started their European adventure on July 12 this season with a 1-0 defeat against Lincoln Red Imps in the second qualifier – with the Gibraltan champions beginning their campaign two weeks earlier against Estonian cracks Flora Talinn on June 28.

Celtic have been Scotland’s sole representatives in Champions League qualifying in recent years – and the change in rules means they could face recent opponents such as Kazakhstan’s FC Astana and Azerbaijan’s Qarabag as early as the second round.

Going by current league standings, Scotland’s champions could face the likes of Norway’s Rosenborg or Swedish champions Malmo in the third qualifying round, before taking on the likes of Hapoel Beer Sheva of Israel, Croatia’s Dinamo Zagreb or Bulagria’s Ludogrets Razgrad for a place in the tournament proper.