Celtic will continue to seek a way to expand their playing options further afield.

Speaking at yesterday's afternoon's kit launch with new kit sponsors New Balance, Peter Lawwell explained that the desire to take Celtic to a bigger audience is still a work in progress.

A move to England is always regarded as exceptionally unlikely, something that Celtic acknowledge, but there are other avenues that the club are looking at.

"We feel we have real potential," said Lawwell. "The fact is that we play in a country of 5 million and you have seen how media values have gone in other regions, of course you get frustrated. We feel if we were part of that then there would be no limits.

"We have a responsibility as a club and a board of directors to look at opportunities that would maximise our potential. So we never give up. And we are not alone. In Europe at the moment there are a lot of second tier leagues suffering from the same problems. There are issues around and I think solutions will be found in the coming years.

"There is a lot of talk and understanding that nations out there are suffering. Therefore people are getting their minds around it and looking for a solution at a European level and a domestic level.

"The English Premier League deal that was announced a couple of weeks ago certainly makes it a bit more difficult - they are doing extremely well in peculiar circumstances. I would not say we were any less optimistic or any more optimistic. But we still have the objective of trying to get into an environment where can maximise the potential of this fantastic club.

"In terms of a British concept, I think there's merit in it and we should be behind it if possible. And in terms of change in Europe, maybe moving away from this congested domestic calendar to more European games might be an idea as well."

Meanwhile, Lawwell has insisted that Celtic are against the idea of adopting UEFA's policy of strict liability in the SPFL.

There have been recent calls for the governing body for tighter rules, meaning clubs would be subject to sanctions such as fines, point deductions or stadium closures as a result of unacceptable conduct by fans.

Present rules from the governing body require clubs to prove they have taken sufficient preventative measures to discourage sectarian, racist or other offensive behaviour by supporters.

Last week, Uefa punished Celtic with a £7,330 fine following crowd disturbances against Dinamo Zagreb last year - bringing their total fines to more than £100,000 in three years. They were also hit with two charges by European football's governing body for incidents at their Europa League match with Inter Milan.

But Lawwell believes that Celtic are doing their utmost to weed out the troublemakers. "There is black, white and grey. The difficulty is the grey," said Celtic's chief executive.

"It would take a long time to go through it and analyse it and talk about it, but we are against it as we feel we have treated unjustly in some of the charges Uefa have put on us.

"We do everything we possibly can.

"I gave an example recently of Udinese.

"We had 12 travel stewards with everyone vetted and then that banner came up before the game.

"Our stewards went in to take it down and one was assaulted. The guys get reported to the police and are taken away, yet we are fined 40,000 Euros, so how much more can we do than we did on that night?

"But it's strict liability and, as a club, we are being punished for something we have not perpetrated and did everything to defend. That's not fair."

Prior to last week's Europa League game in the San Siro, Ronnny Deila appealed for the Celtic support to behave and protect the reputation of the club. Yet, a flare was lit during the game and Lawwell is adamant that it is difficult to legislate for those who eschew even the wishes of their fellow supporters.

"What is the mindset of a guy who is doing something that our supporters don't want?" he said."They travel to Milan and they either bring a flare with them or buy it in Milan.

"Everyone around them doesn't want it to happen, the club doesn't want it to happen, yet they bring it into the stadium and light it.

"How can you defend against something like that?"