The Celtic and Rangers new dawn as £70million Champions League bounty accelerates seismic Euro shift

It's been a long time since Scottish football could claim to dine at Europe's top table but a brave new dawn could be on the horizon for our sides.

As has long been known, this season's Premiership winners are almost guaranteed to go straight into the group stage of the Champions League, with all the financial rewards that brings.

As it stood the only scenario that could rule Celtic or Rangers out of contention was the winners of this season's competition failing to qualify via their domestic league - but even that wouldn't scupper things as it stands.

With teams from Russia indefinitely suspended from UEFA competition an automatic place will go to this season's champions unless they are reinstated in time for the beginning of the new campaign AND the previous scenario applies.

But this isn't just a one-season affair as our teams could be set to reap the rewards for years to come.

Here's how the European shake-up could benefit Scottish teams.

Get all the latest Sports news sent straight to your Inbox every day by signing up to our newsletter.

We cover every morsel of information regarding your favourite club in the form of articles, videos and podcasts.

The newsletter will arrive every day at 12pm, giving you a round up of the best stories we've covered that in the last 24 hours.

To sign up, simply enter your email address into the link here.

And if you aren't already, make sure you join the conversation over on our Facebook groups and Record Sport Instagram.

The first and most obvious benefit is the money that comes with being in Europe's premier competition before you've even kicked a ball.

Estimates have put that at around £35-40m when you combine the current €15.64m (£13m) qualification bonus with the television