THE intervention of Xavi with his view that Celtic should not have to qualify for the Champions League is music to the ears of Hoops fans, but it will not make a single bit of difference to the way that UEFA views Scottish football and its place in the sport these days.

There is no doubt that, on any objective analysis, Celtic would be big enough to participate in the Champions League group stages as Xavi indicated, if they continue to be Scottish champions — and that won’t be a big “if” for a while.

Yet at the moment, because of the failure of Scottish teams, including Celtic, to make much progress in either the Champions or Europa Leagues, Celtic have to join the qualifying for the Champions League at the second round stage which means they have to play six games just to get into the group stages — when Celtic won the European Cup in 1967, they played just nine games in the tournament including the final in Lisbon.

Yesterday’s draw means Celtic will play Northern Ireland champions Linfield or the champions of San Marino, SP La Fiorita, who will meet in the first qualifying round. Linfield would be the trickier of the two, and that’s without mentioning the sectarian issues raised if Linfield have to play Celtic on July 12.

Looking at who might be left in the tournament come the third round and play-off stage, Celtic are by no means certain to make it to the group stages. For the Europa League, the situation is even worse for Rangers and St Johnstone. They will have to play Progres Niederkorn and FC Trakai respectively in the first qualifying round before the end of the month, then they join Aberdeen in the second qualifying round. Rangers could then meet AE Limassol of Cyprus or St Joseph’s of Gibraltar, St Johnstone would face IFK Norkopping of Norway or FC Prishtina of Kosovo, and Aberdeen will play Ordabasy Shymkent of Kazakhstan or Bosnian side Siroki Briejeg. None of those ties are outright gimmes, and anybody who thinks it will be a stroll for the Gers, Saints or Dons to make it to the group stages should look at the teams that already await them in the third qualifying round — AC Milan, Everton, Marseille, Zenit St Petersburg, PSV Eindhoven, and Fenerbahce, to name but six, and then there’s a play-off round after that involving teams that dropped out of the Champions League at the third qualifying round.

Frankly I will consider it a miracle if all four of them make it to those group stages. Even after the progress made under Brendan Rodgers, the likelihood is that Celtic’s unbeaten run which stretches back to last November and Barcelona’s 2-0 win at Parkhead will end when they come up against a continental opponent — their fans can only hope that such a loss is not terminal for their chances of making it into those very lucrative group stages.

In truth there is little incentive for the Scottish sides to do well in terms of how UEFA structures its two tournaments. Because the co-efficient that determines when you start in the qualifying rounds is calculated on five seasons of past performances, Scotland’s clubs start with a disadvantage because we have been rotten recently.

It would be very helpful if Celtic, for instance, were to make it into the last 16 of the Champions League, but frankly responsibility for improving the Scottish coefficient lies with Rangers, St Johnstone and Aberdeen. And here’s the rub — no matter how well they do, unless two of the three Scottish sides make it to the Europa League final in Lyon next May, the co-efficient simply will not improve enough to make a great difference for Scottish clubs.

That’s because the system devised by UEFA panders to the big leagues of England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France. Giving them three or four automatic qualification places ensures that UEFA will get the television audience for the Champions and Europa Leagues, for as always in football, money drives everything.

Years ago I predicted that the league format in both the tournaments would mitigate against Scottish clubs who can raise their game for one-off cup ties, as can any club, anywhere. But being forced to play home and away in a league is always going to favour the bigger clubs with the most resources — in short, those with the most money, and no matter what Xavi says, Celtic are paupers compared to the big English and Spanish clubs.

It is surely only a matter of time before the big clubs of Europe get together to have a proper Europe-wide Super League played throughout the season.

You could franchise the top 40 clubs in Europe defined by fan base, revenues, and television earnings and divide them into two leagues of 20 each playing home and away for a total of 38 games for each club. There would be promotion and relegation between the top and second league and the 40th club would drop out to be replaced by the winner of a short knockout tournament among clubs meeting the criteria for entry into the Super League franchises.

Each club would continue to have a presence in its own national league effectively playing a second team in that league which in turn would give the smaller clubs the chance to win trophies.

At the moment, however, we are stuck with UEFA’s twisted system and so the fans of Celtic, Aberdeen, Rangers and St Johnstone must hope they can progress to the group stages — but I hae ma doots, mon.