Scots clubs warned on Euro slump

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Euro failings costing Scots - Taylor

By Chris McLaughlin

Former SFA chief executive David Taylor has warned that the loss of a second Champions League place is a serious threat to the Scottish game.

From season 2011/2012 Scottish Premier League clubs will fight it out for just one Champions League spot.

"It's a big blow," said the Uefa events chief executive.

"The opportunities for profile and for financial success come from participation in the Champions League and now it will be more difficult."

This season, Rangers went straight into the lucrative group stages of Europe's premier event as Scottish champions, while runners-up Celtic were given the chance to progress through the qualifying rounds.

Celtic beat Dinamo Moscow over two legs but fell at the final hurdle against Arsenal and dropped into the Europa League.

Clubs outside the Old Firm have fared very poorly in comparison to nations with similar resources David Taylor Uefa events chief executive

Following a sequence of poor results from Scottish clubs in all European competitions, Belgium have since overtaken Scotland in the Uefa coefficient list.

And Scotland's sole representative will have to go through qualifying rounds to reach the Champions League proper.

"The effects will be seen," warned Taylor, who left his post at the SFA to become Uefa's general secretary in 2007.

"These are large sums of money which used to be coming into Scotland and in future these sums will not be invested in Scottish clubs, so it has to be a big negative.

"One of the things we have been doing at Uefa is to try to make sure that there are different qualifying routes for the champions of countries that are not so successful and now Scotland comes into that category.

"So there will always be the qualification opportunity but unless we improve on the park then even that qualification route will get more difficult.

"It comes down to what happens on the pitch and Scotland's clubs have been sliding down the rankings."

Rangers picked up just two points from their six matches in Champions League Group G.

And Celtic failed to progress in the Europa League, finishing a disappointing third in their four-team section, while Falkirk, Motherwell and Aberdeen were eliminated from the same tournament before the group phase.

"Clubs outside the Old Firm have fared very poorly in comparison to nations with similar resources. Austria and Switzerland, for example, have been doing better.

"We really have to look at our game and ask 'is it to do with the way our league is constructed, the number of fixtures, youth policies, the number of overseas players?' There are a whole range of factors that need to be explored."

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