Scottish Football Must Evolve to Give its Clubs a Chance in Europe
Every autumn, Scotland’s champions walk out under the bright lights of Europe’s biggest arenas, staring down the giants of the game. A few days later, they’re back home, facing opponents whose budgets wouldn’t buy a Real Madrid reserve team player. The drop in intensity is brutal, and it’s killing Celtic & Rangers’ chances of competing on the continent. If the Scottish FA have ambitions to close the gap, they need to start at home.
The Scottish league itself has to get tougher, sharper, and more competitive.
The Gap That Can’t be Ignored
It’s the same story every year. Celtic or Rangers step onto the pitch in Europe, staring down the likes of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, or Inter Milan. They fight, they scrap, they give it their all. But then comes Saturday, and they’re facing a domestic opponent whose entire wage bill might not match a single player on the opposition’s bench. That’s not to say that money is the be-all and end-all, but it helps.
The gulf in intensity is killing Scottish clubs in Europe. You can’t expect Scotland’s top clubs to switch between world-class opposition midweek and the equivalent of playing League One opposition at the weekend and come out sharper for it. If the Scottish football bosses want their clubs to compete in Europe, they need a domestic league that challenges its best sides far more often than it does.
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A League That Pushes the Best
The truth is, the Scottish Premier League doesn’t test its top clubs anywhere near enough. Yes, there are hard games, namely the Old Firm derbies, tough away days, sticky pitches, and rivals who know how to fight, but that’s not the same as facing a side that moves the ball with Champions League pedigree.
With all due respect, imagine going to St Mirren or Livingston on a Saturday afternoon ahead of going to Real Madrid or Barcelona in the week, not only once, but that’s how the whole campaign goes.
There’s no wonder that, bar the odd Europa League run, which neither Celtic nor Rangers should be a part of under its new format, Scottish clubs don’t hold much respect when it comes to competing for the biggest prize. If Celtic and Rangers are going to hold their own against the best in Europe, they need to be pushed far harder at home. That means stronger opposition, better tactical variety, and a league where points are fought over like gold dust, not wrapped up and put under the tree for them to be opened at Christmas as a gift of a guaranteed top two finish. More often than not these days, Celtic first, Rangers second.
Expansion Is the Key
A 12 team league playing each other four times a season is stale. The same patterns, the same tactics, the same players marking each other year after year. Expansion, whether to 14 or 16 teams (ideally it would be 20), would open the door to more variety and fresh challenges. It would spread the points, give mid-table sides a reason to fight longer, and make the whole competition sharper.
A bigger league would also allow for fewer meaningless fixtures and more games that matter for European qualification, relegation battles, and title races. That constant edge makes players better. And better players make for better European performances.
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Lift Everyone, Not Just the Big Two
This isn’t about making life easy for Celtic or Rangers; it’s about making life harder for them. For the good of its league and its chances in Europe, the Scottish FA needs Hearts, Aberdeen, Hibs, Dundee United, and others to be genuine threats, not just in one-off games, but across an entire season.
That means encouraging these clubs to invest smartly in their squads, to raise their tactical game, and to push for Europe themselves. A strong second tier of contenders forces the Old Firm to raise their own game, just like they’d have to do in Spain, Germany, or England.
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Facilities, Coaching, and Ambition
To get there, the whole league needs a lift. Clubs outside the top two must improve their training facilities, raise coaching standards, and scout better. The Scottish FA can lead this by offering funding, shared scouting resources, and advanced coaching education that helps every club play quicker, smarter, and braver football.
If the Scottish league’s mid-table sides can play with more tactical discipline and technical skill, the gap between them and the Old Firm narrows, and that constant competition is what will keep the top teams sharp.
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Signs of Progress, but Not the Finish Line
To be fair, things aren’t as bleak as they once were. We’ve seen flashes, proof that Scottish clubs can still rise to the occasion when everything clicks. Rangers’ run to the Europa League final in 2022 was the kind of adventure that reminded the whole continent what a Scottish side can do on the big stage. They swept aside Borussia Dortmund, Braga, and RB Leipzig, all while playing with belief, aggression, and purpose.
Celtic, too, have shown they can go up against the giants. Just last season, under the lights in Glasgow, they pushed Bayern Munich to the brink in the Champions League, playing football that was bold, fearless, and at times, every bit as sharp as the Germans, taking them so close to what would have been one of the shocks of the competition.
These moments prove that the talent and the mentality are there. But they also underline the problem: moments aren’t enough. “Almost” doesn’t put silverware in the cabinet, it doesn’t lift Scotland’s European coefficient and it certainly isn’t an achievement.
If Scotland wants those heroic performances to become routine, the expectation, they have to make sure that their domestic game produces that level of intensity every single week. As good as it is to run Europe’s best close, almost isn’t what the fans want to see. It would be nice to think this is an overnight fix, but the work can be done to put a plan in place for this.
Make Europe the Standard
The ultimate goal should be for a weekend Premiership game to feel like preparation for Europe, not a break from it.
Imagine Celtic or Rangers going from facing Aberdeen or Hearts on Saturday straight into Bayern Munich on Tuesday and finding the pace and quality not so far apart. That’s what the standard should be set at; when they reach that level, they will know we’ve got it right. That’s when Scotland will have a league worthy of producing European contenders.
That’s when Scottish football fans will stop talking about ‘closing the gap’ and start talking about tearing it wide open, a full-scale Scottish football revolution. Nobody is expecting to see Celtic or Rangers winning the Champions League in the foreseeable future, but there’s no reason why in 15-20 years’ time they can’t be in the conversation if the Scottish FA acts now.
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