Champions League boost for Scottish football after Rangers result

Scotland will likely have a direct entrant to the Champions League from the 2021/22 season. Picture: SNS

Scotland finished the season 11th in the UEFA coefficient ranking, helped by Rangers’ progress to the last-16 of the Europa League.

Steven Gerrard’s men may have lost out over two legs to Czech opposition but it was enough to fend off competition from Ukraine.

It means the 2021/22 Scottish champions will go straight into the 2022/23 Champions League group stages, as long as the winner of this year’s Champions League also qualify through their league position.

The 26 teams who qualify directly for Champions League are made up of the champions of the countries 1-10 in the UEFA coefficient ranking, winners of the Champions League and Europa League, plus teams finishing second in places 1-6 in the ranking, plus the third and fourth teams from the top four countries.

Ukraine had Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kiev left in the round of 16. However, both sides lost meaning the 0.275 buffer Scotland had remained intact despite Rangers' exit.

What does it mean going forward?

Next season, Scotland will start ninth in the UEFA coefficient ranking.

EPSN editor and coefficients whizz Dale Johnson explained on Twitter that the country will likely require one of the teams to have a positive run in the Europa Conference League which starts next season.

Currently Hibs, Aberdeen and the Scottish Cup winners will be joining Celtic and Rangers in Europe.

With five clubs in Europe rather than four as was the case this season, each victory is worth 20 per cent less due to the winning points being divided by five rather than four teams.