Why Rangers could bypass qualifiers and reach Champions League
Since 2024, European governing body Uefa has given club coefficients over the latest five-year period an important role via something called "title-holder rebalancing". Therefore, should the Champions League winners have also qualified for the league phase via their domestic league position, "the club with the best individual coefficient of all the domestic champions involved in qualifying will enter the league phase directly instead of the original round they had qualified for". Ironically, last season's beneficiaries were Olympiakos, with European champions Paris St-Germain having already qualified as French title winners.
The Piraeus side had finished seven points behind Athens neighbours AEK in the Greek Super League, but this season the positions look likely to be reversed. A 1-0 defeat at home to an AEK side for whom former Hearts left-back James Penrice was back in the starting line-up after a two-game absence leaves Olympiakos five points adrift of the leaders. Indeed, Jose Luis Mendilibar's side have slipped to third behind PAOK Salonica, who drew 0-0 at home to Panathinaikos with former Celtic left-back Greg Taylor an unused substitute on the bench.
There are five games left of the title play-offs, during which the top four play one another twice and statisticians suggest Olympiakos only have a 16% chance of securing a 49th domestic title. Olympiakos are again the club with the most coefficient points from countries outside the top six in Europe, but if they fail to retain that title, Rangers are next in line for that spot straight into the Champions League's league phase. There will be more than a few Rangers supporters monitoring the results when AEK entertain PAOK while Panathinaikos host Olympiakos next on Sunday, 19 April.
So why would Hearts and Celtic not benefit similarly? Well, currently Olympiakos are 34th in the club coefficient table, while Rangers are in 37th. However, Celtic are in 58th and Hearts way down in 154th, so it is Ukraine's Shakhtar Donetsk or Hungary's Ferencvaros who would be next in line to take the vacant spot if the Ibrox side and the Greeks both fail to win their leagues.
Of course, Liverpool could spoil their chances considering Scotland captain Andy Robertson's side are the only ones in this season's quarter-finals who are not in a Champions League qualifying place in their domestic league currently. A guaranteed place in the Champions League proper next season would be a welcome boost for Scotland's coefficient considering recent results, even if the benefit would not be felt until a few years down the line. Celtic finished a disappointing 21st in the Europa League this season, while Rangers were down in 32nd out of 36 teams.