So it's going to be even harder now for our Scottish chums to make headway in the Champions League, given that from the 2011-12 season onwards they will have only one place in the competition. The reason for that being the good results of Belgian clubs in the Europa League this year, namely Anderlecht, Standard Liege and Club Brugge, which have seen Belgium jump above Scotland into 15th in Uefa's co-efficient ranking table. Looking at the current raking table, England are somewhat unsurprisingly top at the moment given the results our (foreign owned) big four have achieved in recent years in the Champions League. The top five being England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France - no surprises there then - while of the 53 countries in the list, the Republic of Ireland are 29th, Wales are 46th, Northern Ireland are 49th and the bottom two are Malta and San Marino. Poor old Malta even being one place beneath Andorra. I had a quick look at the way this table is calculated, and believe me, it really would give Carol Vorderman a headache to be perfectly honest. But if you are struggling with insomnia one evening then have a look at this website and see if you can work out what on earth is going on - http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/calc.html One thing it does show you though is the way that new money has come in and boosted the performance of some countries in European football. The fact that Russia, Romania and Ukraine are sixth, seventh and eighth, while the Netherlands, a former strong force in the old European Cup and UEFA Cup, now reside in tenth being one prime example of this. On the subject of money this is where Celtic and Rangers are now extremely twitchy that one of the them is going to get the Champions League money tap switched off the season after next. Celtic's failure in particular to qualify for the group stages this year meaning that they had a decrease in turnover of almost 23% for the six months to the end of 2009, or a massive downward plunge of £36.11 million in real figures. On the other hand, Rangers posted a profit of just over £13 million. But what it means on another piece of paper now for either Celtic and Rangers from 2011-12 onwards is that, as mentioned, only the title winners now qualify for the Champions League. Even then they will be required to go through three qualifying rounds before entering the competition proper, although they do at least have the consolation that they should be drawn against champions of smaller European countries rather than second-, third- or fourth-placed teams from larger nations. Despite the fact that the Old Firm never complained when the system was biased towards them when they had two qualification places at the expense of other smaller countries, Rangers boss Walter Smith now seems to think that the whole things needs changing around. Smith commenting : "It is an extremely worrying development for ourselves and Celtic, and I've felt for some time now that there is a negligence on the part of UEFA towards the smaller football countries in Europe. The fact that, in two years' time, the Scottish champions might not be able to gain access to the Champions League due to the current system could have potentially ruinous consequences for us. "This isn't just about Rangers and Celtic, it's about a lot of other big clubs in the so-called smaller nations. You now have famous football brands in these countries who cannot get to the Champions League, and it just seems to me to be wrong. You can say it is our own fault, how the co-efficient has dropped, but it will be a very difficult job in a financial sense for our teams to even make the best attempt to get in, never mind get in, to the Champions League." For me, two points there, the first that I lost all sympathy as soon as I saw the phrase "football brands", while the second is - yes, you're right, if both Celtic and Rangers had done better then you would still have your two Champions League places. There also seems to be some crocodile tears from the Old Firm that this will cause a problem for the whole of Scottish football. Well, I might agree with that if Scotland, in 16th don't forget in the ranking table, weren't going to the World Cup this summer, while Slovenia, way down in 35th, are, Serbia and Slovakia being two other countries in the same situation. Infact there is every chance it could be better for the Scotland National team if the Old Firm are forced to blood more homegrown youngsters due to a lack of transfer funds for buying foreign players, and surely that can't be a bad thing? |