Scotland's standing takes hit as clubs exit Europe

NOT since 1994, when all four competing Scottish clubs limped tamely out of Europe before September had come to an end, has the country's Uefa co-efficient ranking taken the kind of battering it has suffered in the opening months of this season.

A post-mortem is premature while the patient is still breathing and sole survivors Celtic may yet turn around their own poor start in the Champions League to rescue a European campaign which currently threatens to be one of the worst in Scottish football history.

There is no doubt, however, that the elimination of Rangers, Queen of the South and then, on Thursday night at Fir Park, Motherwell at the first hurdle of their respective tournaments has damaged the reputation of the nation's football. If you care to throw in Hibernian, who were dumped from the second round of the Intertoto Cup by Swedish side Elfsborg, the picture looks even more bleak.

With Celtic so far picking up just one point from their first two group stage games in the Champions League, ahead of back-to-back meetings with trophy holders Manchester United, the outlook is not rosy with future participation in the elite competition now under serious threat.

Scotland have slipped to 12th in this season's provisional Uefa co-efficient table which will determine the access list for the Champions League and Uefa Cup in the 2010-11 campaign.

If Scotland drop just one more place, then next season's SPL title winners will not gain automatic entry to the lucrative group stage of the Champions League. It is a bleak scenario which, on the face of it, reflects badly on the standard of football in the SPL. But Walter Smith, the doyen of Scotland's managerial fraternity, was quick to defend the domestic game yesterday in light of the recent disappointments on the European stage.

It was during the Rangers manager's first spell at the Ibrox helm that the 1994 debacle took place. His own side lost to AEK Athens in the first round of the Champions League, Dundee United were beaten by Slovakian side Tatran Presov at the same stage of the Cup Winners' Cup, Aberdeen were humiliated by Skonto Riga of Latvia in the preliminary round of the Uefa Cup and Motherwell exited the same tournament at the hands of Borussia Dortmund in the first round.

More recently, of course, Smith guided Rangers to their first European final for 36 years last season and he believes that is no more reliable a guide to the quality of the Scottish game than the present campaign.

"Last season we got to the Uefa Cup final, Aberdeen took their European campaign beyond January and Celtic were terrific in the Champions League, qualifying out of their section," said Smith. "Because of that, everyone was saying our football was great, but the margin of error is tight. We could maybe have a successful spell in Europe but that doesn't indicate we have the best league on the continent.

"When we are having a bad run in Europe as we are at the moment, and I exclude Celtic from that because they still have a good chance this season with two home games to come in the Champions League, then our league's not the worst either.

"It just shows the margin of error in European games is really tight."

It is four years since Scotland had no representatives remaining in Europe after the turn of the year and Celtic will need to at least finish third in their Champions League group and drop into the last 32 of the Uefa Cup to prevent it happening this season. At the moment , it looks like that parachute into the next tournament could come down to the Aalborg v Celtic match on 25 November, unless Celtic spring a major surprise during their next two games against Manchester United.

As it stands, the valuable 12th place Scotland provisionally occupy in the rankings is most under threat by Switzerland, Greece and Belgium in the positions immediately below.

The Swiss too, however, have only one team left after Thursday's Uefa Cup ties. Basel are in the Champions League where they have lost their first two games and now face consecutive ties against Barcelona.

Greece have two sides remaining. Panathinaikos are in the Champions League where they have also lost their opening two fixtures, while Olympiakos have qualified for the group stage of the Uefa Cup.

Belgium have no Champions League representatives, but can expect both Standard Liege and Bruges to pick up co-efficient points in the Uefa Cup groups.

Scotland's current miserable tally is just two draws and six defeats from the eight games played by Celtic, Rangers, Queen of the South and Motherwell. Fortunately the Intertoto Cup does not count towards the co-efficient, given Hibs' home and away defeats to Elfsborg at the start of the season.

If Scotland do drop to 13th, then both the SPL champions and runners-up would go into the 2010-11 Champions League in the qualifying rounds. Should Scotland slip out of the top 15, then only the SPL champions would participate in the Champions League where they would face three qualifying rounds to reach the group stage.

The automatic place in next season's Champions League is already secure for this season's SPL title winners, making the prize an even greater priority for Smith whose team look to protect their unbeaten start against bottom of the table St Mirren at Love Street tomorrow.

Despite the lowly status of the Paisley side, however, Smith anticipates the kind of testing fixture he believes shows the SPL in a healthy condition regardless of their clubs' European performances.

"The early indications are that this is going to be a good league this season," he said. "Playing each other four times a season makes it more difficult in Scotland than people looking in from the outside imagine.

"Below third place, there are only five points separating the other teams in the league. It looks from the early season indications that that area especially will be extremely competitive.

"We find all the games extremely competitive because of the nature of games where it's a big thing to be playing against the Old Firm for the majority of clubs. It looks as if this season will be one of the more competitive seasons in that department."

Meanwhile, Smith insists Zenit St Petersburg were worthy winners of their Uefa Cup final after the Russian club denied match-fixing allegations over their last-four win against Bayern Munich.

There is no question the better team won the Uefa Cup final," said Smith.

"I thought the referee was excellent, I thought Zenit were excellent. We were beaten by the better team.

"We have no complaints about the final and I think it's wrong that anyone who was at the final should question Zenit and the way they played. There were no other influences on the game other than the way Zenit played."