Uefa's new 'Europa League 2' could send Scottish teams to third tier
- Published
Steven Gerrard led Rangers to the Europa League group stage this season
Scottish clubs will have to play in Uefa's new third competition instead of the Europa League from 2021, unless the country can improve its coefficient ranking.
Uefa announced on Sunday that the new tournament - currently titled "Europa League 2" - will sit below the existing Europa League and clubs from nations ranked outside Uefa's top 15 will enter that instead of the Europa League.
Scotland currently sit 20th - having risen from 23rd after a strong season.
The Premiership winners would still go into the Champions League qualifiers and could drop into the Europa League as Celtic have done this term.
But Scotland's other European entrants would all go into the UEL2 qualifiers in a tournament that will be played on Thursdays alongside the Europa League.
So who is in the EL2?
Actually, some pretty big names.
As things stand, the seventh-placed teams in La Liga, the Premier League, Serie A and Bundesliga would all feature.
Going by last season's final standings, that would put Sevilla, Burnley, Atalanta and Stuttgart into UEL2.
We'd also see the sixth-placed team in France, and the clubs finishing fourth and fifth in Portugal competing.
Can Scottish clubs get promoted?
No, unless one wins UEL2. What Scotland can do is improve its coefficient to get into the top 15.
The 15th-placed nation gets two Champions League berths and one Europa League entrant, with its fourth and fifth-placed teams heading for UEL2.
Currently, Scotland are just under five coefficient points adrift of Switzerland, who occupy that 15th slot.
How do they climb the Uefa table?
Put simply, go as far as possible in Europe.
Each team gets a point for a win and half-a-point for a draw in the qualifiers and play-offs of the Champions and Europa Leagues.
Those points are doubled in the group stages, meaning Celtic's midweek triumph over Rosenborg netted Scotland two points.
A team gets four points for making it to the Champions League group stage and four more for reaching the last 16.
Teams earn an additional point for progressing from their groups and a point for each round they reach thereafter in both the Champions and Europa Leagues.
Still following?
Uefa calculates a country's coefficient for the season by dividing its total points haul by the number of teams competing - in Scotland's case, four.
So far, Scotland has six points this term - a figure only bettered by the top-four-ranked countries on the coefficient ladder. It needs its teams to keep racking up the wins if it's to avoid relinquishing its Europa League places.