Former Celtic player Tom Boyd has said that the club needs to progress into the latter stages of the Champions League in order to compensate for the lack of playing against archrivals Rangers in the Scottish Premier league.

The financially stricken club Rangers were recently relegated from the Scottish Premier league after falling into administration. It has been revealed that the famed old firm derby, the matches between Rangers and Celtic, will not take place for another three seasons. Of course, it may take longer if Rangers failed to get back to the Scottish Premier league.

This could result in a substantial loss of income for Celtic. As a result, they need to progress to the latter stages of the Champions League in order to compensate for this loss according to Tom Boyd, who captained Celtic during his playing days. Celtic will not be able to go into the group stages of the competition this season. Instead, they will be entering the Champions League at the third qualifying stage. As muchas get into the latter stages of the Champions League is important, Tom Boyd acknowledges that just getting into the group stages of the Champions League itself is far more important because it provides around £ 30 million in revenue.

"You will miss them. Obviously they are the biggest games in the country, if not the UK. But hopefully we will get some Champions League football. The club is a massive football club, it is renowned worldwide and we certainly hope that attraction is still there to sign targets. Obviously you have that potential of the Champions League, which is a bigger stage than Scottish football, so we have got take make sure we are there and in it to attract some quality players," said Boyd regarding the finances of the Scottish club.