SNS GroupCeltic crashed and burned out of the Champions League in shock fashion on Tuesday night after a 5-1 defeat to LASK.
Martin O’Neill’s men had one foot in football’s biggest club competition after a convincing 3-0 win over the Austrian champions last week.
All Celtic had to do was avoid defeat by a four-goal margin to reach the league phase, and when captain Callum McGregor put the Scottish champions ahead after 23 minutes, it looked like plain sailing.
But wave after wave of attacks from LASK saw the Hoops concede four goals in less than an hour, culminating in a capitulation in Linz.
It means Celtic automatically drop into the league phase of the Europa League, and will find out their opponents this week.
It was déjà vu for Hoops fans from last year’s horror exit to Kazakhstan minnows Kairat Almaty under previous boss Brendan Rodgers.
SNS GroupThe Scottish champions have spent big in the summer, securing record signing Kasper Hogh from Bodo/Glimt and bringing in the likes of Camilon Duran, Mika Baur and Hassem Hassan for a total of around £30m.
However, big money sales including Arne Engels to West Ham for £22m and Daizen Maeda to Ipswich for £10m have helped balance the books.
And now the lucrative headline figure of £40m for Champions League qualification has slipped through their fingers.
‘Champions League exit is a bitter blow, but not a knockout’ – expert
Figures show Celtic missed out on a one-off payment of over £15m (€18.62million) for Champions League qualification.
Celtic would’ve also received a slice of the lucrative TV money, estimated to be worth around £8m to the club in season 2024/25.
The Hoops would also have had the chance to earn more than £1.7m for a win and nearly £600,000 for a draw during eight league phase matches.
The club is estimated to have made more than £40m from the Champions League in the 2024/25 campaign.
SNS GroupInstead, figures suggest Celtic will now receive around £3.7m for Europa League qualification, with a win in the league phase worth around £385,000.
They will receive another £3.6m in compensation as one of the seven clubs that lost in the Champions League play-off round.
In interim accounts released earlier this year, Celtic reported a drop of more than £20m in revenue.
Kieran Maguire, professor of football finance at the University of Liverpool, says the cost of losing out on the Champions League could impact several transfer windows to come.
He told STV Sport: “For every £100 you make from UEFA for qualifying for the Champions League, you get around about £22 in the Europa League and £11 in the Conference.
“So there’s no doubt this is a big blow for Celtic. They would have been budgeting to participate in the group stage and I think to make further progress in the Champions League and that can be very lucrative.
“If you get to the final stages, you’re looking at somewhere in the region of £150m in total. That’s just prize money.
“The upside for Celtic is that they’ve got a greater chance of making progress in the Europa League. They will be one of the bigger fish. Having said that, it’s going to be a tough, tough competition. And their first aim is to get into the knockout phase and then take things from there.
“So it’s a bitter blow for the club, but it’s not a knockout blow. And the events of last night are more of an embarrassment, I think, for the fans, and the players and the management than a huge hit financially.
“Although this will impact upon Celtic’s ability to recruit both in this window and the next couple as well.”
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