BRENDAN Rodgers believes UEFA must force Europe’s leading clubs to obey or be forced to obey financial fair play if Celtic are to remain competitive in the Champions League in future.

Aleksander Cerefin, the UEFA president, has once again vowed to try and address the ever-widening gulf between the continent’s largest clubs and their rivals from lesser footballing nations this week.

The Slovenian lawyer made his comments following several one-sided victories for teams from England, France, Germany and Spain in the opening round of Champions League group games.

Cerefin has previously mooted introducing salary caps similar to those which exist in American football in the United States as well as restricting the size of squads and number of players who can be sent out on loan.

Rodgers, whose side was beaten 5-0 by a Paris Saint-Germain side which fielded world record signing Neymar on Tuesday, believes it will become increasingly difficult for the Scottish champions to compete unless the current regulations are tightened up.

UEFA’s existing Financial Fair Play rules have been criticised since Saint-Germain signed Neymar for £198 million from Barcelona and Kylian Mbappe for £165 million from Monaco this summer and an official investigation is underway.

“Time will tell what UEFA do,” said Rodgers. “But the starting point is having a sanction or ruling in place that clubs actually abide by.”

He added: “What’s interesting for me is that teams used to have, say, one or two top players. But look at that Paris Saint-Germain team. They’ve got top, top players all across the pitch, Verratti, Motta, Silva, a Brazilian captain.

“You look at (Julian) Draxler (who came on for Saint-Germain in the second half on Tuesday night). He is probably the best German player and he’s on the bench.

“There are players on £300,000 a week in the Premier League. Some of those boys are on £300,000 a week net. It’s good money if you can get it!

“These teams financially are huge. For the likes of us there is a big difference even with the teams in pot three. Borussia Monchengladbach last year were way, way above ourselves. Every year it gets further and further away with the money in the game, whether people like it or not.

“It’s only going one way in the market. If you are paying more for players then the salaries are going to go up. It’s double edged. The money we get from Champions League is massive, but it’s nothing compared to some of these clubs.”

The Scottish champions will face an extra round of qualifying matches in the Champions League from next season while four clubs from the four domestic leagues with the highest UEFA coefficient – Spain, England, Germany and Italy – will go straight into the group stages.

“It’s already well under way,” said Rodgers. “It’s difficult, but we need to meet the challenge. It’s where we want to be, for many reasons. You want it at the highest level you can, but it’s only going to increase the difficulty as the years go on, because money talks. That’s what the people with the money want to see, it’s the brand.

“Listen, it’s where it’s going. The teams in pots one and two are so far ahead financially and they will look to have all the big teams in there after Christmas.”

Rodgers, though, stressed that Celtic welcomed the challenge of competing with Europe’s elite and were still hopeful of making it out of Group B and being involved in either the last 16 of the Champions League or last 32 of the Europa League.

“The objective is to qualify for Europe (beyond Christmas). Take away the top two then these are the games that will really be deciding factors. Even then, in comparison to us again, they have a different level of wage. But we will look forward to the games, and hopefully we will improve and get results.