Rangers, Celtic and any other once eligible Scottish teams will be denied entry into the Europa League as of 2021/22 as part of plans for the new UEFA Conference League.
The frustrating plans are part of UEFA’s attempt to include clubs from smaller nations in competitive European competition and will largely streamline qualification for the Europa League.
But as things stand the spaces which currently offer Europa League qualification in Scotland (2nd, 3rd & cup winner/4th) will evolve to Conference League spots.
Under the new plans, all nations ranked under 15th in the UEFA coefficient table will be effectively locked out of the Europa League.
Scotland is currently ranked 19th on 23.375, almost two full coefficient points off Greece in 15th (25.300).
Journalist Dale Johnson predicts it will be at least 2022/23 before Scotland can realistically reach that spot.
The coefficient is calculated based on five-year performance in Europe, which, given Rangers were hunkered in Scotland’s lower leagues for so long, has been particularly woeful for this country.
With the introduction of the new competition, teams who would have entered the Europa League at the preliminary round and first and second qualifying rounds will drop into the new competition.
This includes Rangers, Kilmarnock and Aberdeen, who entered in the first qualifying round this year.
As part of this the Europa League groups stages will be reduced from 48 teams to 32 teams from season 20/21.
A space will still be available in Champions League qualification for league winners, with that team, likely Rangers or Celtic, trickling down to Europa League qualification, and then Conference League qualification, depending on their results.
Teams will trickle down from the top competition to the bottom throughout qualification and at the end of their respective group stages.
For more information on the functionality of the new UEFA Conference League and how it affects current European competition, ESPN has created a handy guide of how the competition dropdowns work.
It is pretty striking that the side which does not finish atop the Scottish Premiership will have no route into the second tier of European competition. More so in the duopoly of the Old Firm.
The financial disparity between Champions League wealth and the money shared out in the Europa League is already considerable – it is likely to be more so between those competitions and the Conference League.
For clubs like Aberdeen, Kilmarnock and the rest of the Scottish Premiership, who regularly fail to qualify for the Europa League this could well be a positive move.
But for big clubs like Rangers and Celtic, who harbour ambitions at the top of the game, it really does appear a backwards step.
