The Celtic coefficient myth busted as removing Hoops points sees Scotland descend into Champions League hell

After Rangers’ win over against Real Betis at Ibrox in their Europa League group opener, another 0.4 coefficient points were added to Scotland’s total. Rangers have now played 32 home Europa League games at Ibrox since their return to Europe in 2017 and have lost only three times. It’s undoubtedly an impressive record and has helped massively towards Scotland achieving and maintain its top 10 status.

This season, our five clubs who entered Europe have so far accumulated 2.4 points. To remain a top 10 nation, we need to average around six to seven points per season so there’s a lot of work still to do. We ideally need two teams to continue with European football after Christmas to maximise our chances of staying top 10 and therefore keeping our guaranteed Champions League place for next season’s Scottish Premiership champions.

As soon as the full-time whistle went at Ibrox against the Spaniards, my inbox was overflowing with memes informing me that Rangers are single-handedly carrying Scotland’s coefficient. There’s no doubt Rangers have been more successful than Celtic in Europe since 2017, despite the unprecedented domestic dominance enjoyed by the Hoops. In the seven seasons since Rangers’ return to Europe, including the current season, the Ibrox club have earned 19.175 points towards Scotland’s coefficient and Celtic have added 16.025. Aberdeen are the next biggest contributors in that time frame, adding 3.2 points. This includes the season of Pedro Caixinha infamously arguing in a bush in Luxembourg, with Rangers' fantastic European exploits only igniting with the appointment of Steven Gerrard in 2018

The country coefficient is calculated over the last five seasons, so removing the two earliest seasons we get