McGeady welcomes automatic Champions League spot

Celtic winger Aiden McGeady has welcomed the news that the Scottish champions will qualify automatically for the Champions League in future years.

The Hoops this season scraped into the group stages after an epic struggle with Spartak Moscow, who finished second in the Russian top flight.

And while the Scottish Premier League champions won through on penalties against the Russians, Rangers had a slightly less nervous progression as they beat Red Star Belgrade 1-0 on aggregate.

McGeady feels there was no advantage in finishing first for Celtic, given the lottery of the draw for the third qualifying round.

However, the champions will go straight into the lucrative group stages from the 2009-10 season after UEFA approved changes to the format of the competition.

"We were champions last year and had to go through a qualifying round playing against Spartak Moscow and that was a very hard game," McGeady said.

"If you win your league, you should automatically go into the Champions League.

"You could say Rangers had an easier draw than us and they came second in the league.

"We won the league and played a really, really tough game against Spartak, who are a tremendous team and were very unlucky not to be in the Champions League because of the calibre of players they had."

UEFA president Michel Platini's determination to see more national champions in the competition, sees 22 clubs qualifying automatically, including the Scottish champions.

Five more places will go to the 15 leading countries in Europe, decided through qualifying rounds, and the remaining five reserved for the champions of the lowest 40 clubs.

Platini also confirmed proposals to allow domestic cup winners to qualify for the Champions League have been shelved, but not scrapped altogether.

SPL chairman Lex Gold also welcomed the UEFA decision.

"This is a victory for common sense. The outcome was endorsed unanimously by the UEFA Strategy Council on November 12.

"It is a sensible decision that protects the standing of the world's best club competition, while meeting Michel Platini's election promise to open it to more nations.

"As things stand, under these arrangements, from 2009 the club that wins the SPL will gain direct entry into the group stage of the Champions League and the second place club will enter the competition at the second qualifying round."