The UEFA words that show there will always be a place in European football for Celtic and Rangers

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin (left) speaks with Celtic majority shareholder Dermot Desmond during his visit to Glasgow for the Europa League match between Celtic and Valencia in February 2019. (Photo by Alan Harvey/SNS Group).

When UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin visited Glasgow on Valentine’s Day two years ago, he clearly found it a heart-warming experience.

Ceferin may not have seen Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic side at their best as they lost a Europa League round of 32 first leg contest 2-0 to Valencia.

But the Slovenian lawyer could only have been impressed by the atmosphere created by a crowd of 57,430, the biggest attendance by a distance of any of the 16 Europa League matches which took place that evening in February 2019.

Ceferin had experienced for himself just what larger clubs from smaller countries bring to UEFA’s club competitions. It is perhaps why he has chosen to namecheck Celtic and Rangers in one of his latest verbal broadsides against the proposed European Super League.

Former Hearts chairman Wallace Mercer formally announced the proposed breakaway Scottish Super League at a press conference in Edinburgh (Photo by SNS Group).

Turkish giants Galatasaray, whose crowd of just over 42,000 for their match against Portuguese heavyweights Benfica was the second highest on the night Ceferin took a seat in the Celtic Park directors’ box, are also among those he has cited in outlining why the closed shop ethos of the ESL must be resisted.

"We need to keep the dream alive," said Ceferin. "Uefa competitions need Atalanta, Celtic, Rangers, Dinamo Zagreb and Galatasaray.

"There has been a shift in recent years, accelerated by the (Covid-19) crisis, that too often ignores what happens on the pitch and sporting merit, a shift that has to be stopped immediately.

"Some think that in order to succeed we need to copy another model. But the European model has stood the test of time."

Rangers' long European history enjoyed its highest point in 1972 - captain John Greig is pictured on his return to Glasgow after the Cup Winners' Cup triumph in Barcelona. (Photo by SNS Group).

Genuine success at European level may be a rarity for the Old Firm clubs whose sole pieces of silverware came with Celtic’s 1967 European Cup glory in Lisbon and Rangers’ Cup Winners’ Cup triumph in Barcelona five years later.

But both clubs have a long-established status as two of the biggest draws in continental club competitions, regularly topping the attendance charts just as Celtic did when Ceferin was in town.

Countless visiting players and managers have expressed their admiration for the atmosphere inside Celtic Park or Ibrox on a big European night. Those words would be easy to interpret as patronising but their sincerity shouldn’t be doubted.

Those of us who have been fortunate enough to attend those occasions in the two grounds, while also travelling to away ties all across Europe, know that the noise and spectacle created in Glasgow is seldom matched or bettered elsewhere. Media colleagues from other countries have regularly corroborated that view.

Ceferin recognises what the Old Firm bring to the European party and it’s why he is now promoting them as such assets from a UEFA perspective. As Celtic and Rangers hope for more regular access to European group stage football in the coming years, it's an endorsement which may help them advance their cause on and off the pitch in the coming years as the ramifications of the ESL controversy begin to crystallise.

As my colleague Andrew Smith has argued, the notion of Celtic and Rangers possessing a global reach may have been overstated through the years.

But on a European scale, as Ceferin has indicated, they remain highly recognisable and powerful brands. Whatever the future holds for European football, there is a place in it for the Glasgow giants.

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