The Belgians

The UEFA co-efficient. What’s that? I hear (some of) you asking. OK, in over-simplified terms - if a country’s clubs do well in Europe over a few seasons, they might get an extra place in the Champions League. There’s more to it than that, but that’s the gist of it.

This system also works in reverse of course. If your country performs badly, it may lose a place. Scotland has, for the season after next. It was da Belgians wot dun it.

It’s been twenty years since the Old Firm regularly failed to be the cream in Scotland. The ‘New Firm’ of Aberdeen and Dundee United rose above them in the 1980s. However, in the 1990s and 2000s only once or twice have the Old Firm not grasped, with their sectarian, greedy hands, the top two slots.

However, coming second was, since the advent of the Champions league anyway, not such a raw deal, as the silver medalists still got to take on Europe’s elite, in Europe’s elite competition. No longer. Second place now gets Europe’s second race – the Europa league.

That means, to me, as a lifelong Arab (Dundee United fan) that each season one of the Old Firm will have less money to compete against us. This may create a leveler playing field, which may also see Old Firm’s dominance of football eroded, even ever so slightly. Maybe.

The downside for the smaller clubs is that you now have to win the league to get into the Champions League, and no team outside the Old Firm has done that in more than a quarter of a century. Aberdeen in 1985.

So, this news is definitely a two-sided coin. Yes the Old Firm may have slightly less money to play with. But the chances of anyone outside the Old Firm ever getting into the Champions League have all but vanished.

Also, Scotland now gets one less European slot overall, i.e. one Champions League place and three UEFA (Europa) places. Assuming that the Scottish Cup winners will still get a UEFA spot, this means only second and third in the league, rather than third and fourth, as it is now.

All in all, it’s not good news for Scotland. It may be bad news for the Old Firm, which may, through rivalry, please the rest of us, but overall, it’s terrible news.