The Champions League tie Celtic will be watching that could bring in even more coefficient cash

One of the benefits of a guaranteed spot in the Champions League group stage is being able to focus on starting your domestic season while others battle it out in the qualifiers.

But Celtic will have an eye on one of the ties taking place despite being safe in the knowledge they'll be in the hat with the big boys when the time comes to draw those little UEFA balls out of the pots. FC Copenhagen's two-legged affair with Sparta Prague may not be of much interest outside Denmark and the Czech Republic (or Cyprus and Poland, with Rakow Czestochowa or AEK Larnaca awaiting the winners), but the outcome is of significance to the Scottish champions.

UEFA distributes part of its prize money based on a club's coefficient ranking over the previous 10 years. Celtic are ranked 50th in that regard, meaning their 10-year payment will total €10,233,000 or £9m or so.

However, FC Copenhagen are the only club in the Champions Path to the group stage that has a higher one-year coefficient ranking than Celtic. The Danes are ranked 42nd, earning them a 10-year payment of €12,707,000. If they are knocked out following a 0-0 draw at home to Sparta, then in theory, Celtic will be bumped up the rankings, earning them an extra £900,000.

As for Rangers, they are ranked 58th. They still have to see of Servette to make the playoff round, where they will almost certainly be reunited with PSV, who beat Sturm Graz 4-1 in their first leg encounter on Tuesday night. Both are in a different path to Copenhagen and Sparta. Should Michael Beale's man make it to the group stages, they'll be looking at a ten-year payment of just over £5.8million.