Scottish Clubs Ranked 26th by UEFA After Rangers and Aberdeen’s Poor European Campaigns

Wednesday night was a triumphant evening for English clubs in Europe as Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, Chelsea and Manchester City all finished in the top eight in the league phase of the UEFA Champions League.

Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest then continued the positive momentum on Thursday by ending their Europa League campaigns on a high with wins over Salzburg and Ferencvaros respectively.

As a result, the Premier League is well on course to earn a fifth Champions League spot.

However, the European performances of clubs north of the border in Scotland have been far less impressive this season.

Scottish clubs in Europe this season

For starters, both Celtic and Rangers failed to qualify for the Champions League. Celtic were knocked out by FC Kairat of Kazakhstan after losing on penalties in the play-off round, while Rangers were thrashed 9-1 on aggregate by Club Brugge at the same stage.

Rangers eventually landed in the Europa League but they are now out of that competition too. A 3-1 defeat away to Porto on Thursday saw Rangers finish 32nd in the Europa League’s league phase, ahead of only Nice, Utrecht, Malmo and Maccabi Tel Aviv.

At least Rangers fared better than Aberdeen, who ended up 35th out of 36 teams in this season’s Europa Conference League after taking just two points from their six games against Shakhtar Donetsk, AEK Athens, AEK Larnaca, Noah of Armenia, Strasbourg and Sparta Prague.

Yet some Scottish interest in Europe still remains this season. Celtic beat Utrecht 4-2 on Thursday to finish 21st in the Europa League, earning a spot in the knockout phase.

In total, Scottish clubs played 22 games in the league phase of this season’s Europa League and Conference League. They won four games between them. That is half the total of wins recorded by Arsenal in their perfect league phase campaign in the Champions League.

Results by Scottish clubs in Europe this season

Aberdeen (Conference League – league phase)
Lost 3-2 at home to Shakhtar Donetsk
Lost 6-0 away to AEK Athens
Drew 0-0 away to AEK Larnaca
Drew 1-1 at home to Noah
Lost 1-0 at home to Strasbourg
Lost 3-0 away to Sparta Prague
Celtic (Europa League – league phase)
Drew 1-1 away to Red Star Belgrade
Lost 2-0 at home to Braga
Won 2-1 at home to Sturm Graz
Lost 3-1 away to Midtjylland
Won 3-1 away to Feyenoord
Lost 3-0 at home to Roma
Drew 2-2 away to Bologna
Won 4-2 at home to Utrecht
Rangers (Europa League – league phase)
Lost 1-0 at home to Genk
Lost 2-1 away to Sturm Graz
Lost 3-0 away to Brann
Lost 2-0 at home to Roma
Drew 1-1 at home to Braga
Lost 2-1 away to Ferencvaros
Won 1-0 at home to Ludogorets Razgrad
Lost 3-1 away to Porto

Scotland relying on Celtic to boost standing in UEFA club rankings

Celtic will now meet Stuttgart or Robbie Keane’s Ferencvaros next.

A win in that two-legged contest could be very important for Scottish football and how many European places the country is awarded in future seasons.

Five Scottish clubs entered UEFA tournaments at the start of this season.

Celtic and Rangers both began in the Champions League before dropping into the Europa League.

Hibernian started off in the Europa League’s second qualifying round but failed to even make the league phase of the Conference League.

Dundee United lost in the Conference League qualifiers, while Aberdeen made it to the league phase but did not win any of their games once there.

Scotland ranked below Cyprus

Such a poor performance across the board is currently reflected by Scotland’s dismal collective score in the latest UEFA rankings.

UEFA’s association club coefficient rankings, which are used to decide how many European spots each nation receives, are calculated based on performances over the past five seasons.

Scotland are 18th in the latest rankings, but their position could fall much lower due to their dismal 2025/26 results.

Based exclusively on performances in the 2025/26 season, Scotland are ranked 26th by UEFA with just 4,600 coefficient points. For context, English clubs have currently earned 20,958 this season, with that figure set to grow as nine Premier League teams remain in contention across UEFA’s three tournaments.

Among the countries currently ahead of Scotland in the 2025/26 standings are Bulgaria, Slovenia, Azerbaijan and Cyprus.

UEFA association club coefficient rankings for 2025/26 season

Nation	25/26
1. England	20.958
2. Portugal	16.600
3. Germany	16.214
4. Spain	15.531
5. Italy	15.500
6. France	13.750
7. Poland	13.625
8. Greece	12.100
9. Cyprus	11.906
10. Denmark	11.750
11. Belgium	10.000
12. Czechia	9.725
13. Netherlands	8.645
14. Turkiye	8.275
15. Ukraine	6.812
16. Norway	6.550
17. Hungary	6.187
18. Switzerland	6.000
19. Azerbaijan	5.812
20. Romania	5.750
21. Croatia	5.406
22. Serbia	5.250
23. Sweden	5.000
24. Slovenia	4.750
25. Bulgaria	4.687
26. Scotland	4.600
27. Republic of Ireland	4.250
28. Austria	4.100
29. Kosovo	3.781
30. Armenia	3.687
31. Iceland	3.625

UEFA association club coefficient rankings over last five seasons

Nation	Points
1. England	111.797
2. Italy	96.446
3. Spain	90.484
4. Germany	87.331
5. France	78.927
6. Portugal	69.266
7. Netherlands	66.595
8. Belgium	60.850
9. Turkiye	49.075
10. Czechia	47.225
11. Greece	46.312
12. Poland	44.625
13. Denmark	41.606
14. Norway	39.737
15. Cyprus	35.443
16. Switzerland	34.500
17. Austria	33.850
18. Scotland	31.650
19. Sweden	29.625
20. Israel	27.500
21. Croatia	26.531
22. Hungary	25.937
23. Romania	25.250
24. Serbia	25.250
25. Ukraine	24.412
26. Azerbaijan	22.937
27. Slovenia	22.843
28. Slovakia	22.375
29. Bulgaria	20.562
30. Russia	18.299