As champions of Scotland, the Hoops have a two-legged play-off to navigate to secure their place in the league phase
Rangers will have to negotiate three qualifying rounds to reach the Champions League next season.
But the Ibrox side could’ve parachuted directly into the lucrative league phase had they been crowned 2024/25 title winners.
Gers will begin their quest to join Europe’s elite at the top table by kicking off their campaign in the second qualifying round via the league path.
Celtic, as champions of Scotland, will enter at the play-off stage, meaning they will have to overcome a two-legged tie to secure a £30million ticket to the league phase.
That’s because over the last 12 months, Scotland have slid down UEFA’s coefficient rankings into 17th – losing a guaranteed spot in the competition.
Celtic – who have automatically qualified for the last three seasons as a result of winning the Premiership – will compete in the champions path and are on course to be seeded, which is a major boost.
The Hoops ended their 12-year wait to reach the Champions League knockouts by finishing 21st in the new-look league phase, only to suffer an agonising 3-2 aggregate defeat to Bayern Munich.
However, a loophole could’ve seen them bypass the nervy qualifiers and jump straight into the 36-team competition proper.
As always, this year’s Champions League winners will automatically qualify for next season’s league phase, but if the newly-crowned Kings of Europe have already earned a place via their domestic position, then the club with the best individual coefficient of all the domestic champions involved in qualifying will enter directly instead of navigating their original round.
This year’s semi-finalists, Inter Milan vs Barcelona and PSG vs Arsenal, have all but clinched their spot among the big boys for 2025/26 due to their league positions.
And that means, the title winners with the highest coefficient of all the clubs currently top of their domestic leagues from associations 11–55 would be gifted the Champions League winners’ league phase berth.
Coefficient points are calculated by a club’s performance in European club competitions over the current five-year period. Unfortunately for Celtic, Greek Super League winners Olympiacos would benefit by landing an automatic place with 56.500 coefficient points compared to the Hoops’ 38.000.
However, as Rangers top the table for all clubs from associations 11–55 with the most coefficients (71.250), the Light Blues would’ve leapfrogged Olympiacos and profited from the Champions League winner rebalancing had they finished top of the pile in Scotland.
The top ten coefficients for all clubs from associations 11–55
- Rangers (SCO) – 71.250 (2nd in domestic league)
- Olympiacos (GRE) – 56.500 (champions)
- GNK Dinamo (CRO) – 56.000 (2nd)
- Shakhtar (UKR) – 52.000 (3rd)
- Bodø/Glimt** (NOR) – 49.000 (champions)
- Salzburg (AUT) – 48.000 (4th)
- Copenhagen (DEN) – 44.875 (1st)
- Crvena Zvezda (SRB) – 44.000 (champions)
- PAOK (GRE) – 42.250 (3rd)
- Ferencváros (HUN) – 39.000 (1st)
