It’s one of many age old debates between Rangers and Old Firm rivals Celtic.
Heck, it might even be the biggest one.
With Celtic edging excruciatingly closer to Rangers’ world record league title haul, the subject of European football remains a hot topic of debate.
Both clubs have one European trophy apiece and both have been regulars in European competition over the last seven decades.
But only one of Glasgow’s Old Firm duopoly can be crowned Scotland’s most successful club on the European stage and according to a leading Swiss data football site, it’s barely even a contest.
Rangers & Celtic’s UEFA history ranked
Swiss Football Data are one of the most reputable UEFA coefficient data companies on X.
The account ranks teams from across Europe based on their historical performance in European competition and has just produced the bonafide list of the continent’s ‘most successful clubs’.
This is done by compiling all the relative coefficient scores of every team who has competed in any European competition since the 55/56 season.
And the results will make one side of Glasgow delighted whilst the other will likely be burying their heads.
Rangers are – by some distance – Scotland’s best performing team in the history of European competition and are ranked an impressive 11th overall (113.667).
That’s higher than Italian giants Inter Milan (12th – 110.341), legendary English side Liverpool (14th – 106.432) and Old Firm rivals Celtic (15th – 104.250).
The best performing European team in history is Real Madrid (189.184) with arch rivals Barcelona ranked second (178.156).
Interestingly, Manchester United (8th – 123.213) are the only English side which ranks above Rangers in the history of European competition.
Rangers are Scotland’s number one
If we’re talking about the last five seasons, then Rangers are one of the best performing clubs in Europe in terms of UEFA coefficient.
Rangers’ performance on the European stage in recent years has been extraordinary given the club’s financial troubles in 2012 and is quite simply not celebrated enough in Scottish football.
Reaching Seville was a tremendous feat and Rangers’ stunning contribution to the coefficient has guaranteed Champions League football for a Scottish club for the last three years.
It’s just a shame our domestic shortcomings have gifted such rewards to Celtic, a club who have categorically underperformed on the European stage for a generation.
Failing to win a European knockout tie since 2004 – a space of time in which Rangers have reached two European finals – Celtic are on the receiving end of fawning media coverage over Parkhead and routine skelpings at the stadium in equal measure.
Rangers meanwhile continue to punch above their weight amid a wave of negativity back home.
We expect the same again next season with history telling us that it’s Rangers, and not Celtic, who wave the saltire highest on foreign soil.
