CELTIC have been given an extra incentive - 18 million of them, in fact - to make it four titles in a row.

 

By this point last season, the Hoops had already crossed the finishing line in the title race, courtesy of a 5-1 win over Partick Thistle.

This year, Aberdeen continue to push them all the way.

But, on Friday when they play St Mirren, the champions can open up an eight-point gap, with just nine games remaining.

And they can be quids in if they can maintain their advantage in the run in, then avoid the kind of flop which saw Celtic crash out to Maribor in the play-off for the Champions League at the start of this season.

Only one place in the qualifying rounds for the Champions League is available to Scottish clubs.

And, once again, the champions will have to negotiate two ties before they even reach the play off for a spot in the Group Stage.

That means another early start to the season, with three qualifying games scheduled before the end of July.

But the short close-season will certainly be worth it if Scotland's representative can book their place in the Group Stage, the draw for which takes place at the end of August.

Uefa have announced significant changes to the money which will be split between all the participating clubs in both the Champions League and the Europa League.

The biggest jump comes in the level of payment for clubs who make it to the Group Stage of the major competition.

Clubs who are successful in the play-offs will earn a bonus of more than £1.5million.

But that will just be the tip of the iceberg as they will also unlock a guaranteed £10.75m participation fee just for making it into the Group Stage - up more than £4m from previous years.

On top of that, there is £385,000 available for every draw - and a victory will now be worth more than £1.1m.

A cut of the TV pot would also be assured, and, with new contracts in place, this is expected to be substantially more than £6m.

All of which means that, even if they lost all six games in the group, Scotland's representative can expect to bank over £18m.

That's almost as much as Celtic received for making it all the way to the last 16 two years ago.

Last season, they finished bottom of their group, but still earned over £13.5m.

That meant Celtic's failure to make it to the Group Stage this season saw a severe drop in the club's turnover.

The run to the Last 32 of the Europa League - where they lost to Inter Milan - offset this, but only slightly as it is generally accepted Europe's second competition is worth only around 12-15 per cent of what can be earned in the Champions League.

Even with the money on offer in the Europa League also receiving a substantial hike from next season, winning the trophy would be worth less to Celtic than just qualifying for the Champions League Group Stage