Brown blasts Bayern chairman’s European Super League plans

Scott Brown has criticised plans put forward by Bayern Munich’s chairman that could see Celtic excluded from the elite European competition.

Karl-Heinze Rummenigge has put forward an idea for a new European Super League with clubs from Italy, Spain, Germany, England and France included.

This would mean that smaller nations with teams like Celtic, Benfica and Porto in Portugal or Ajax and Feyenoord in the Netherlands would be excluded from the premier competition, despite winning the competition in years gone by.

The demise of the Champions League as we currently know it would be terrible for Celtic according to Brown, who has many fond memories in the competition.

As quoted by the Glasgow Evening Times, the 30-year-old captain said:

It suits them, eh?

It would be terrible. I know we haven’t made it for the last two years but not to have it ever again would be gutting for everyone.

We would all be disappointed – I would be and the fans would feel it as well. Lionel Messi said that playing at Parkhead was one of the highlights of his career, but that was just because he was playing against me!

But that just shows how different grounds and different clubs make it the tournament it is and we should definitely have at least the opportunity to play in the Champions League.

Brown has reached the last-16 three times for Celtic, in 2006 and again in 2008 under Gordon Strachan and most recently under Neil Lennon in 2012.

He was unfortunate to miss out on one of the most famous night’s in Celtic’s history at Paradise when they beat Barcelona, but doesn’t want those night’s taken away from everyone else.

It’s not really the Champions League anymore if they do that.

It should be the champions of every country in it. It is always hard already, because England, Germany, Spain and Italy have four teams.

We have to get through three qualifying rounds, so it is always hard to take.

You look back to the good old days when the champions went straight into the tournament.

So it’s a hard one to hear about this new plan and hopefully Uefa don’t go with it.

The size of our support makes us one of the biggest clubs in Europe and they follow us wherever we go. They’ve been brilliant and caused no trouble whatsoever.

It’s easy for clubs who are automatically in the tournament year after year to decide that they’re the only ones who should be in it but it’s not right.

After two years without Champions League football, the demand for Celtic to reach the group stages of the competition next season will be greater than ever.