Scotland's club sides ranked 25th overall in European competition for their performances in the 2011/12 season.

With the finalists for both the Champions League and Europa League decided, it is possible to accurately calculate the final position following the contributions of four Scottish entrants this campaign.

Celtic, Dundee United, Hearts and Rangers mustered a total of 11 coefficient points over 18 fixtures, an average of 2.750.

In comparison, that performance was topped by the club sides from Georgia, Belarus, Czech Republic, Denmark and Sweden, amongst others.

The final position represents a drop of four places from last season, when the nation had five teams participating, and equals the finish in 2009/10 when Scotland had six entrants. In 2007/08, the season Rangers reached the UEFA Cup final, the country was the fifth best in terms of form in Europe, ahead of Italy.

Celtic, thanks largely to their participation in the Europa League group stages and the award of two victories in the qualifying round following the expulsion of FC Sion, contributed more points than any of the other three Scottish teams combined.

Their two wins by default over the Swiss side, coupled with a win and three draws in the group stages, saw Neil Lennon's team finish with a total of seven points.

Hearts managed to add two points to the record having drawn with both Paks and Tottenham Hotspur in qualifying, as well as beating their Hungarian opponents at the third qualifying round stage.

Dundee United and Rangers both only added a point each to the total. The Terrors won one of their two qualifying matches to record their contribution, while the Ibrox club's two draws over four matches notched up 0.5 points each time.

Team ranking

Despite their group stage appearance, Celtic fell nine places in the UEFA team ranking from 54th to 63rd, which is calculated on an average over performances in the last five seasons.

Rangers remain Scotland's top performing European team, dropping 17 places to 50th. Hearts fell seven places to 184th, while Dundee United also dropped 11 places to 193rd

On account of their non-participation, Aberdeen fell ten places to 143rd, Motherwell moved down 12 to 189th, Hibernian slipped seventeen to 215th and Falkirk lost 39 spots to fall to 234th.

Based on 2011/12 performances alone, Celtic were the 65th best team in Europe from 236 entrants. Hearts and Rangers were joint 113th and Dundee United were 174th.

The team ranking has a bearing on seedings for competitions, with the coefficient points used to calculate which pot sides will fall into.

Celtic go into next season's Champions League qualifiers with a coefficient of 32.738, which should see them comfortably as seeds for both stages.

Whichever team joins them in qualifying from the SPL will be certain non-seeds for both qualifying rounds.

Next season

The form of Scottish teams this season has no bearing on the qualification spots for the 2012/13 campaign. The number of spots in both competitions was determined using a coefficient based on the calculation of performances between 2006/07 and 2010/11.

Scotland occupy 15th spot in next season's access list, which should ensure two teams will qualify for the Champions League, both at the third qualifying round stage.

UEFA are yet to confirm the exact regulations for how their qualifying rounds will operate from next season, but the process is not expected to vary from the past three seasons.

Assuming there is no drastic change, Celtic will be on the champions path, pitting them against other league winners in the first instance from 19 other countries.

Only the Scottish entrants, the winners of the Belgian Pro League and the Romanian top flight enter at the third qualifying round stage, with 37 other teams vying for 17 spots through both the first and second qualifying phases.

Twenty teams will be in the draw on July 20. Ties are currently scheduled to take place on July 31/August 1 and August 7/8.

The winners of the third qualifying round ties will then proceed to the play-off round, which is drawn on August 10. Fixtures are due to take place on August 21/22 and 28/29.

Presuming Rangers do not, as expected, receive a UEFA licence to participate in Europe next term, the team finishing third in the SPL will face two rounds on the non-champions path in their quest to make the groups.

Lying in wait are nine potential opponents: the second placed teams from Russia, Ukraine, Holland, Turkey, Denmark, Belgium and Romania, the third placed side from Portugal, and the winners of a play-off in Greece.

The five winners then join the third placed teams from France and Italy, as well as the fourth placed sides from Spain, England (subject to the winners of this season's competition) and Germany.

If either side goes out at the third qualifying round or play-off round stage, they will automatically parachute into either the Europa League's play-off round or group stages respectively.

Going forward

The overall contribution to Scotland's coefficient this campaign ensures the nation will occupy 18th position in UEFA's access list for the 2013/14 season. That means only the SPL champions will qualify for the Champions League and will have to go through three qualifying rounds to make the group stages.

In the same season, three teams will enter the Europa League. The winners of the previous season's Scottish Cup will enter at the third qualifying round stage, with the teams finishing second and third in the SPL needing to overcome three rounds of qualifiers to make the groups.

Barring a significantly impressive performance next season, the country is likely to fall further down the list. This will only impact on Europa League qualification, with the second qualifying round spot in the Champions League remaining unaffected.

The worst case scenario for 2014/15 would still see three entrants in the Europa League, but with the SPL's second and third placed teams needing to start in the competition's first qualifying round. The Scottish Cup winners would begin in at the second qualifying round stage.

A more likely scenario will instead see the Scottish Cup winners and second place in the SPL both enter into the second qualifying round, with third place needing to go through four rounds to make it to the group stages. 

With thanks to Bert Kassies' eternally impressive and comprehensive website for its statistical data.