Scotland Gets Five Euro Places

Scotland is to get five places in European club football tournaments from the 2009/10 season after UEFA announced a new structure.

The new structure will see an additional qualifying round in the UEFA Cup the season after next, with the fourth-placed team in the Scottish Premier League the likeliest to benefit.

For the coming season, Scotland will have four representatives in Europe. Celtic go straight into the group stages of the Champions League, while Rangers must negotiate two qualifying rounds.

Motherwell, who finished third in the SPL, and Scottish Cup runners-up Queen of the South will attempt to make the group stages of the UEFA Cup.

For season 2009/10, Scotland will retain its two Champions League places and the Scottish Cup winners will continue to enter the UEFA Cup in the round before the group stage.

The SPL’s third-placed team will begin their campaign one level earlier, in the third qualifying round, while the fourth-placed team will start in early July in the second qualifying round.

The SPL has contacted UEFA to request that in future the Scottish Cup runners-up do not qualify.

Should the winners of the Scottish Cup have already qualified for Europe, the SPL would like to see the highest-placed SPL team that has missed out on Europe take the UEFA Cup spot.

In the past three seasons, Gretna, Dunfermline and Queen of the South have qualified for Europe as Scottish Cup final losers.