Scottish clubs face tougher Europa League route

Uefa has made a change to the qualifying rounds of the Europa League which will make it more difficult for Scotland's representative to qualify for the league phase. From next season, the final qualifying round will be split into paths for champions and non-champions, mirroring the system in the Champions League and the Conference League. The Europa League third qualifying round currently has two paths, but condenses into one seeded draw of all teams in the final stage. From next season, it will stay as two separate qualifying routes. It means Scotland's representative will no longer be able to play the likes of Iberia 1999, Kairat Almaty or Ararat - three teams who dropped down from Champions League qualifying champions path. Another season, another failure - where did it all go wrong for Celtic? Rangers count consequences of European failure The Scottish Cup winners - or if that team also wins the league title the Premiership runners-up - enter the Europa League in the first qualifying round next season. The non-champions path is far stronger, as it includes teams who qualified by league placing from countries such as Belgium, Turkey, Czech Republic and Greece. In addition, non-champions from the Champions League can drop into the path. This season, that was Olympiakos, Sparta Prague, Sturm Graz and Union St-Gilloise. This season, Hearts were in the non-champions path and were eliminated by Benfica. Rangers, who were seeded, were knocked out at the same stage by Jagiellonia Bialystok. With Celtic and Rangers' five-year coefficient falling due to poor performance by Scotland's clubs, they may well be unseeded next season, meaning a more difficult draw against one of the teams from a major league. But there is one positive. If the Scottish title winners drop out of Champions League and into the Europa League qualifying, they will play another team to drop down from the Champions League. This season, Celtic entered the Champions League in the play-off round - meaning they were guaranteed to drop into the Europa League league phase. But next season - due to Scotland dropping down the coefficient table - the champions will enter in the second qualifying round, and must win three ties to make it to the Champions League.