Financial Fair Play Farce

Can't argue with that, Rued.

scotscelt

to the best of my knowledge, barring fair play allocations and winners of tournaments altering things, a country's coefficient at a set point in time dictates how many european places they get 2 season down the line.

The cut off points are as follows
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_coefficient#Country_coefficient

At the end of 07/08, a very successful season for Scottish clubs in Europe, our UEFA country ranking was 10th, that meant that, not in 08/09, but in 09/10, we were awarded 5 european places, 2 in the champions league, 4 in the europa league, and Motherwell got a fair play allocation.

At the end of 08/09, we were in 13th, which meant for 10/11 we had 5 places, 2 champions league and 3 europa league

End of 09/10 we were 16th, 15th is the cut off point for 2 champions league places, so we dropped to 4 places for 11/12, just the 1 champions league and 3 europa league.

End of 10/11, we were back up to 15th, which gave us that extra champions league place again, which is why last season we went back up to 5 teams in Europe, champions Celtic and 2nd placed Motherwell qualified for the Champions League, 3rd placed Dundee United, cup winners Hearts and 5th placed St Johnstone qualified for the Europa League

Tis how it always works to the best of my knowledge

Stevie.

I would cut the Europa League drastically and make it mimic the Champions League.

A simplistic 32 team competition and NO DROP OUTS from the Champions League.

At the beginning of the season 194 clubs have the chance of playing Europa League. I'm sorry but that number is far too high.

Once the status-quo is resumed, Scottish Football would benefit from having Celtic, Rangers and one other club contesting qualifiers- with every point earned divided by three.

Henrik

My honest belief is that you only get better by pitting yourself against a better opponent.

The more Scottish clubs we can get into the Europe, the better in my view.

Yes, the old firm will suffer as a reuslt of other teams being $hite in Europe.....but if Celtic can make it to the last 16 of the champions league one season, with the new qualifying setup that Platini installed to give lesser leagues a better chance and ensuring league champions in the qualifiers only play other league champions of leagues in most cases of lesser coefficients thatn ours, it really will only be the fault of Celtic if they dont qualify for the group stages.

Was the same for Rangers when they could play and compete against the likes of Barca and Lyon one season then fell flat on their face against Kaunas.

Its not a great situation, but its fair in my book, and gives clubs in this country with NO chance of winning the league, something to aspire to and a chance to outshine the old firm on a bigger stage, something they will NEVER do domestically

They have to take that chance be take responsibility for thier failures also, that doesnt happen, and that pi$$es me off.....everyone rips into the old firm if they are $hite in Europe, and the old firm these days now have to punch well above their weight in order to be considered as being successful in Europe.

Its not the old firm's fault if the 2nd, 3rd best teams in the country cant even get past the first fcking hurdle every season, thats their fault and its their responsibility to do better...much better

feck - i was reading the essay above, got agitated, and pressed the enter key

What has to happen is that the Scottish Cup route is blocked off at all costs.

Falkirk, Gretna, Dunfermline, Ross County and now a disastrous Hibs team this season have been awarded a qualifier despite playing awful in the league.

In fact Hibs' route to the final consisted of two slender home-wins against Hearts and Aberdeen who are also in the bottom-half as well as a good away win to Killie and a win against Falkirk.

Celtic's route to the final was also quite simple, with the exclusion of Dundee United.

But getting to a Scottish Cup Final should not allow you to get a European qualifier.

How you have proved yourself over thirty-eight games should determine that, in my opinion.

One good thing UEFA have done is give the wiiner of the Europa a place in the CL. Many teams don't care about Europa so this will give the competition more prestige with a bigger prize at the end.

Sorry Henrik mate, disagree

If you take the European place away from the cup, you demean the cup.

and if poor league performing cup winners getting into europe was a unique situation for Scotland fair enough, but its not.

Wigan and Birmingham in recent years have qualified for Europe through the english cup competitions, yet were relegated domestically.

This season Swansea are in there too, and you can see just how made up thier fans are about that....could have been Bradford and what a story that would have been!!

Cup wins should be rewarded with more than a trophy and a financial pittance in Scotland....every other European league rewards their cup winners with a spot in Europe...so should we

Makes me laugh every year when teams out-with the OF and just Celtic this year are raving about being 'in Europe'. Every year without fail, they get pumped over 2 legs of qualifiers and it's all over before it's even begun.