What European places can Scottish clubs earn this season?

The glory of the title. The magic of the Scottish Cup. The warm glow of third place or a top-six berth.

There is plenty at stake for the clubs in the top half of the Scottish Premiership as they fight for European places.

Aberdeen and Hearts also have the possibility of European football if they win the Scottish Cup, as do relegation-threatened St Johnstone.

As a previously swollen coefficient starts to shrink, though, the rewards for Scottish clubs are diminishing, which has consequences for summer plans, trips for fans, and valuable cash for clubs.

Here is what Scotland's clubs stand to gain next season.

Guaranteed Champions League ends

Champions Celtic have enjoyed direct qualification to the group or league phase of the Champions League for the past three seasons.

Manager Brendan Rodgers has made clear what a difference it made to avoid the qualifiers, with more guaranteed money to spend and pre-season preparations less rushed.

That guaranteed gravy train ends from next season. Scotland's champions - certain to be Celtic again - will enter in the play-off round, and so will need to win one tie to reach the 36-team league phase.

That two-leg affair will come against a fellow domestic champion from countries ranked below Scotland in the coefficient standings for next season, for example Denmark, Serbia, or Greece.

There is still a way the Scottish champions could sneak into the league phase directly, though.

If the Champions League winner has already qualified via their domestic league, then their place goes to the domestic champion with the best five-year coefficient who has not already qualified directly.

Celtic are not in a great position to claim this as they are ranked outside of the top 50, though Rangers would have been be as they are ranked 26th because of their Europa League successes.

The Premiership winners have the consolation prize of a Europa League place should they fail in the play-off round.

Meanwhile, it gets worse for the Premiership runners-up too. Rangers started in the third round of qualifying this term, before losing in the play-off round to Dynamo Kyiv.

Round two is now the starting point, so in all likelihood Rangers would have to negotiate three rounds of qualifying to reach the Champions League.

As long as they win one tie, though, a Europa League place is assured.

Of course, Rangers are still in with a shout in this season's Europa League and the winners of that competition are rewarded with a Champions League spot.

*If league champions win Scottish Cup, third place gets their spot

Huge Scottish Cup incentive

As has been the case in the past three seasons, the Scottish Cup winners qualify for the play-off round of the Europa League, with the failsafe of a Conference League berth should they lose that.

That is a huge incentive again for St Johnstone, Hearts and Aberdeen to go all out for the cup, as they would anyway, because it trumps third spot.

If Celtic win the cup, this privilege goes to the third-place side in the league, currently Hibernian.

Third place in itself earns a spot in the second round of Europa League qualifying, while fourth gets you the equivalent starting point in the Conference League.

Fifth would take that place in the Conference League qualifiers should Celtic, Aberdeen, or Hearts win the Scottish Cup and finish in the top four.

In that case, the teams in third and fourth would be in the Europa League qualifiers.

St Mirren took advantage of this after finishing fifth last term when champions Celtic won the Scottish Cup.

What about the season after?

Scotland's coefficient has been falling since the heady heights at the start of this decade.

The country has slid from 11th in the standings to 14th, with Hearts' failure to progress in the Conference League further hampering attempts to push back towards the top 10.

Even with Rangers' run to the quarter-finals of the Europa League, Scotland cannot catch 12th-place Norway.

That means the guaranteed Conference League place for the Scottish Cup winners or third place will disappear from 2026-27, and Scotland's clubs will face more arduous journeys through the qualifying rounds.