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By Mitch Phillips LONDON, April 6 - Celtic fans celebrating their
Scottish Premier League title will now be willing Barcelona or
AC Milan to win the Champions League to put the icing on the
Glasgow club's cake. After last season's controversy when Liverpool won the
Champions League and needed special dispensation to be allowed
to defend it after finishing outside the top four in the Premier
League, UEFA have acted to avoid a repeat. This season's winners will qualify for the group stage of
next season's competition automatically, regardless of their
domestic league position. Barcelona and Milan, who meet in one semi-final, are
currently first and second respectively in Spain and Italy.
Should one of them go on to win the final on May 17 while
remaining in the top two, a space will open up in the group
stage of next season's competition. That space would be filled by Celtic, who are next in line
in UEFA's access list and will otherwise go into the qualifying
round. Villarreal and Arsenal, who meet in the other semi-final,
are currently seventh and fifth respectively and should one of
them win the trophy without cracking their domestic top two then
Celtic would still have to take their chances in the qualifiers. That is something they will want to avoid having gone out in
qualifying this season, thrashed 5-0 by Artmedia Bratislava in
the first leg and winning the return 4-0. Other interested observers are the fourth-placed teams in
England and Spain - currently Tottenham Hotspur and Osasuna -
who would be forced into the UEFA Cup if their respective
compatriots go on to win the Champions League while remaining
outside the top four. If the Milan or Barcelona scenario occurs, the Scottish
runners-up would still enter the second qualifying round and the
champions of Israel, Sweden and Slovakia would all be shunted up
one place in the access list and play one less qualifying round. There is a further twist in Scotland where third division
Gretna are hoping Hearts can hang on to second place in the
league - and a Champions League qualifying slot - thereby
guaranteeing Gretna a UEFA Cup place regardless of what happens
when they face Hearts in the Scottish Cup final.
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