NEIL Doncaster, the SPFL chief executive, last night welcomed confirmation the “champions route” into the Champions League has been retained by Uefa.

However, Doncaster has promised the SPFL will fight against any plans to do away with the path which Celtic took into the group stages of Europe’s premier club competition this season in the future.

Many of the continent’s biggest and most powerful clubs wanted the route, which former Uefa president Michel Platini introduced seven years ago to enable clubs from smaller footballing nations to qualify, to be scrapped.

They threatened to break away from Uefa and form a European super league comprising the leading teams from England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain unless the qualification process was changed.

There appears to be no possibility of that happening in the near future after European football’s governing body announced the new formats for the Champions League and Europa League for the three-year commercial cycle starting in the 2018/19 season.

The top four clubs in the leading four leagues in Europe – England, Italy, Germany and Spain – will all get into the group stages automatically.

At the moment, only the top three clubs in the Premier League, Bundesliga and La Liga qualify. The fourth-placed team has to go into a two-legged play-off. Meanwhile, only the top two clubs in Serie A get in with the third-placed side going into a play-off.

There is a possibility that clubs from outwith the top four leagues in Europe may have to play an extra qualifying game.

“There is still a lot to be worked through before we can comment fully on these changes, with Uefa stating that full details of the access list for both competitions will be finalised by the end of the year,” said Doncaster.

“What we can say now is that, after lobbying hard for the retention of the champions route for Uefa Champions League qualification, the SPFL is therefore pleased that the champions route has been protected as part of these changes.”