pete 2,499 Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 Motto of the story.... don't always believe what you read in the Scottish gutter press.... I've been caught out believing the shite they print too I'll agree with you on that one, you are totally correct. The only point is that it was a tweet from RB that gave the handstand bit I believe so the press were only running with it. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrahimHemdani 1 Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 Sorry to quote myself but to add to the above, I've just been reading on FF that Scotland (you know the country where football blossomed in our absence) has fallen so far in the co-efficient that all Scottish clubs, even the cup winners (or second in the league if the league winners also win the cup) have to start at the first qualifying group stage. Only one club from that stage (48 teams) made it to the group stages last year. This is because teams such as West Ham United, Hertha Berlin, Panathinaikos and Spartak Moscow were in the third qualifying round and then you also had sides dropping in from the Champion's League, such as Fenerbahce, Sparta Prague and Anderlecht. The opening round is on June 29th. Scottish Cup Final is May 28th and Scotland play England (might affect McKay and Wallace) on June 10th. How we would have a team ready for that in that timescale is a mystery, especially as loan players will presumably be leaving at the end of May. I don't think your information about the coefficients is quite correct. This season's Access List is based on the 2015 Country Rankings in which we were 23rd. On that basis the CW went into ELQ2 and the 2nd and 3rd in the League went into Q1. Scotland were indeed 25th in 2015/16 which is the base for next season's Access List but the same Access arrangements apply. Below 25th, you are correct that CW, N2 & N3 go into the ELQ1 but oftentimes, in fact usually, something happens higher up to give lower teams a boost. This season for example: The Champions League title holder spot is not used since Real Madrid already qualified for the group stage by the domestic league. This implies that the Europa League title holder Sevilla gains access to the Champions League group stage, leaving an empty spot in EL-Q3. In order to fill the gap the cup winner of the 18th country on the ranking list (Cyprus) has direct access to the 3rd qualifying round, and the cup winners of the 26th and 27th countries on the ranking list (Norway and Serbia) have direct access to the 2nd qualifying round of the Europa League. On May 18 the UEFA Executive Committee decided that the domestic champion and the domestic cup winner of Kosovo will be admitted to the first qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. For this season the clubs of Kosovo will have to meet the special permission licensing criteria under article 15 of the UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play regulations. However, the Kosovar clubs did not get a license. This implies that the champion of the 46th country on the ranking list (Latvia) has direct access to the 2nd qualifying round of the Champions League, and the cup winner of the 28th country on the ranking list (Slovenia) has direct access to the 2nd qualifying round of the Europa League. We are actually back up to 23rd this season, which will be the base for 2018/19 (though Cyprus or Bulgaria could overhaul us) on the back of Celtic's improved showing (45th from 54th) so I don't think ELQ2 is in danger for our cup winners. http://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/access2016.html However, our most likely route is as N2 or N3 in which case it will be ELQ1 for us; and since our coefficient will be so low as to be non-existent, it is unlikely we will be seeded, so we might have to play decent teams from the likes of Israel, Denmark, Cyprus, Azerbaijan or Kazakhstan etc etc before we get close to playing the standard of Clubs you mention in Q3 or Q4, never mind the likes of Maribor! I stand to be corrected on the above in the light of the new arrangements for the CL announced by UEFA. I totally agree with your second point, which means that in effect the best bet for any of our players wanting a holiday is if we don't get to the Cup Final so the last game would be on 21/22 May; but even then it won't be more than a week or two at most. I don't believe that the current team are good enough to survive two EL qualifying rounds never mind Q3 and Q4, so if we don't add more quality to the squad now, we won't have any additions before we start back in earnest in Europe this June. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian1964 10,761 Posted January 29, 2017 Author Share Posted January 29, 2017 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveC 150 Posted January 29, 2017 Share Posted January 29, 2017 (edited) Thanks, Ian and thanks BH for correcting the incorrect info I posted on the co-efficient. It isn't quite as bad as I thought but it's still an incredibly tight time squeeze and a task that seems insurmountable at our current level. Edited January 29, 2017 by SteveC 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrahimHemdani 1 Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 It's an excellent video, which reminds me to post some of the pictures that I took along the way. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrahimHemdani 1 Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 (edited) You may note the black "Rangers Ultras" flag which is something I have never seen before and I must admit caused me some concern. Edited January 31, 2017 by BrahimHemdani Rangers Ultras Flag 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrahimHemdani 1 Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrahimHemdani 1 Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrahimHemdani 1 Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankie 8,663 Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Nae snowball fights? Poor show...! 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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