With Celtic advancing to the playoff round of the Champions’ League and Rangers qualifying for the final 16 of the Europa League, European winnings should be flowing into Scottish football.
Well, at least to Glasgow’s “big two”—to the tune of £27.14 million for Celtic and £9.15 million for ’Gers.
The Full Scottish
Served by Brian P. Dunleavy
True, Premiership clubs who failed to qualify for Europe for the current campaign—Dundee, Hibs, Kilmarnock, Motherwell, Ross County, St. Johnstone and St. Mirren—will receive £1.6 million at the end of the season in so-called “solidarity money” intended to “maintain [the] competitive balance” in Europe’s top-flight leagues.
Although anyone who watches Scottish football knows there’s very little “solidarity” between its clubs.
About the only benefit Scotland’s other clubs get from Celtic and Rangers succeeding in Europe is an improved UEFA coefficient for the nation and its league.
This, in theory, means more clubs will have the opportunity to qualify for European competition and, conceivably, earn money, too.
However, what we’ve seen is that European competition can be a double-edged sword for less well-heeled clubs. In some cases, these clubs lack the resources to build a squad—in terms of both size and quality—to viably compete in Europe.
Which hurts them on both the continental and domestic fronts.
Consider Killie. Last season, they finished fourth, which meant they qualified for this season’s Europa League second qualifying round, which they lost to Cercle Brugge over two legs in July and August. The extra fixtures early in the season stretched their squad and affected their start to the Premiership campaign.
They are now sitting 11th in the table.
Similarly, St. Mirren finished the 2023-24 campaign in 5th, good enough to make the Conference League qualifying rounds. The Paisley side lost in the third round of qualifying and, again with extra figures, struggled for much of the first half of the domestic season.
They are now sitting 7th in the table.
All of which has to have clubs such as Motherwell—currently 5th in the Premiership—wondering if they should be careful what they wish for.
In fact, a fifth-place finish would normally be considered a success for a club Motherwell’s size, and yet a segment of the Fir Park support apparently wants more—manager Stuart Kettlewell resigned his post earlier this week, citing abuse from fans. Apparently, some were targeting his wife and children.
And that was before his side were facing the challenge of European competition.
Years ago, during an interview with us, the legendary Archie Macpherson once conjectured whether certain Scottish clubs should be deemed “too big to fail.”
We now whether those big clubs have an obligation to help those too small to succeed.