Scottish Clubs in Europe

[Keith_M]

Four Scottish clubs played in Europe this week and the combined score was scored 2, conceded 15.

When I was a kid, the Scottish clubs often did reasonably well, sometimes competing with top level European sides. Now I know this was an exceptionally bad week, but we do seem to have regressed quite a bit.

The questions are; why have we dropped so significantly, and what could be done to improve our results and standing in Europe?

[Hibernia&Alba]

We were all ragdolled, though I must admit I immensely enjoyed seeing the others hammered

[He's here!]

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We were all ragdolled, though I must admit I immensely enjoyed seeing the others hammered

Yep, said it on another thread but I couldn't care less about the co-efficient. I want to see only Hibs progress in Europe and the sooner the other Scottish clubs crash out the better - preferably in as humiliating a manner as possible.

[KWJ]

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Yep, said it on another thread but I couldn't care less about the co-efficient. I want to see only Hibs progress in Europe and the sooner the other Scottish clubs crash out the better - preferably in as humiliating a manner as possible.

It's a bit of having your cake and eating it too. The other clubs doing well will make it easier for Hibs to do well.

I can just about wish all the teams well, but I do bloody love seeing the tears and seethe in the crowd when they are getting horsed. Best of both worlds.

[Bishop Hibee]

I actually thought Hibs and Hearts had decent results against Lucern and Rosenberg. The days of Hibs beating Napoli, Hearts beating Bayern Munich at home etc are over. If Hibs got massive investment from a multi-millionaire, our results would improve hugely. Simple really.

[7Hero]

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I actually thought Hibs and Hearts had decent results against Lucern and Rosenberg. The days of Hibs beating Napoli, Hearts beating Bayern Munich at home etc are over. If Hibs got massive investment from a multi-millionaire, our results would improve hugely. Simple really.

we are already owned by a multi millionaire, we need a Billionaire...

[Dr What If?]

Money is the obvious answer. Scottish football doesn't generate nearly enough income when compared to leagues in Europe, so despite having gate receipts at an individual level that many a league would envy, TV and sponsorship put us on the back foot.

When you look at the ties on an individual level the picture is quite clear. Us and the Hun were punching streets ahead of ourselves and a hiding was always on the cards. Aberdeen had a tough tie but poor finishing and lax defending meant they pretty much knocked themselves out. Hearts were the ones who had a shot against a side of relatively similar status and really should have done better (shame ).

Obviously there are questions over grass roots and coaching but still the main defining factor is the commercial side. SPFL just needs better businessmen who can negotiate our relative worth to those investing in football.

[overdrive]

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Money is the obvious answer. Scottish football doesn't generate nearly enough income when compared to leagues in Europe, so despite having gate receipts at an individual level that many a league would envy, TV and sponsorship put us on the back foot.

When you look at the ties on an individual level the picture is quite clear. Us and the Hun were punching streets ahead of ourselves and a hiding was always on the cards. Aberdeen had a tough tie but poor finishing and lax defending meant they pretty much knocked themselves out. Hearts were the ones who had a shot against a side of relatively similar status and really should have done better (shame ).

Obviously there are questions over grass roots and coaching but still the main defining factor is the commercial side. SPFL just needs better businessmen who can negotiate our relative worth to those investing in football.

Rangers have a broadly similar turnover to PSV.

[Real Emerald]

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Four Scottish clubs played in Europe this week and the combined score was scored 2, conceded 15.

When I was a kid, the Scottish clubs often did reasonably well, sometimes competing with top level European sides. Now I know this was an exceptionally bad week, but we do seem to have regressed quite a bit.

The questions are; why have we dropped so significantly, and what could be done to improve our results and standing in Europe?

The obvious answer is money but you need to ask why we’re so far behind in that respect? It’s criminal that we pay the same Sky subscriptions that punters down South pay but the money from Sky UK is extremely poor coming back in a TV deal. Also, the way Scottish football tries everything it can to keep the cartel of Celtic and Rangers basically stops any meaningful league competition. It’s a self serving spiral to the bottom. Who would plough money into such a corrupt set up?

[Nakedmanoncrack]

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The obvious answer is money but you need to ask why we’re so far behind in that respect? It’s criminal that we pay the same Sky subscriptions that punters down South pay but the money from Sky UK is extremely poor coming back in a TV deal. Also, the way Scottish football tries everything it can to keep the cartel of Celtic and Rangers basically stops any meaningful league competition. It’s a self serving spiral to the bottom. Who would plough money into such a corrupt set up?

People in Scotland pay Sky etc subscriptions to watch English football, and to a lesser extent Rangers/Celtic there is no market for anything else. Who watches Scottish club football on TV? Very rarely me, zero interest other than watching Hibs, and can't remember last time I paid to watch Hibs on TV.

[Stairway 2 7]

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People in Scotland pay Sky etc subscriptions to watch English football, and to a lesser extent Rangers/Celtic there is no market for anything else. Who watches Scottish club football on TV? Very rarely me, zero interest other than watching Hibs, and can't remember last time I paid to watch Hibs on TV.

Think the whole world is obsessed with the EPL for some reason, was there not thousands of Scandinavian Man U season ticket holders

[Real Emerald]

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People in Scotland pay Sky etc subscriptions to watch English football, and to a lesser extent Rangers/Celtic there is no market for anything else. Who watches Scottish club football on TV? Very rarely me, zero interest other than watching Hibs, and can't remember last time I paid to watch Hibs on TV.

If that’s the case then Scottish football should have no TV deal if no one wants to watch it. That’s despite Scotland having by far the greatest % of the population actually going to watch football in Europe. I hope you’re not negotiating our next TV deal, what a great advert. 😂

[Lancs Harp]

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If that’s the case then Scottish football should have no TV deal if no one wants to watch it. That’s despite Scotland having by far the greatest % of the population actually going to watch football in Europe. I hope you’re not negotiating our next TV deal, what a great advert. 😂

The percentage of population point is a bit mute a bit of a comfort blanket. Most of that figure are watching Celtic or Rangers. None of the rest of us average 20,000 its a very dificult issue to resolve. Money comes from tv and sponsorship but quite obviously our product doesnt attract the required audience. How do you resolve that?

[DH1875]

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The percentage of population point is a bit mute a bit of a comfort blanket. Most of that figure are watching Celtic or Rangers. None of the rest of us average 20,000 its a very dificult issue to resolve. Money comes from tv and sponsorship but quite obviously our product doesnt attract the required audience. How do you resolve that?

If you take rangers and celtic out of it we are still one of the top 10 leagues (its actually better than 10th) support per head of population.
I personally would rather watch a Scottish game than an EPL game. A lot of my mates are the same.

[Tommy75]

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The percentage of population point is a bit mute a bit of a comfort blanket. Most of that figure are watching Celtic or Rangers. None of the rest of us average 20,000 its a very dificult issue to resolve. Money comes from tv and sponsorship but quite obviously our product doesnt attract the required audience. How do you resolve that?

Agreed, the whole % of population thing isn't quite the achievement a lot of folk think it is. Last season 7 teams in our top league averaged less than 10k. Throw in the fact that the likes of Ross County, Livi and St Johnstone are regularly outnumbered by away fans, it doesn't point to a population coming out to watch a spread of teams across the country.

If you look at a typical week and add the Celtic/Rangers home supporters with the Celtic/Rangers away supporters that week, it would be more than the rest of the attendances across all the leagues in the country put together.

The game is knackered up here and we are so far behind. Unfortunately there is no apetite from those running the game because the status quo suits the 2 Glasgow clubs. I'd like to see a 20 team league, ideally we'd have 2 teams regularly in the CL group stages and a batch of 4 or 5 different teams regularly in the Europa/Conference group stages to get money flowing through the game here. Chances of it happening? 0.

[Pagan Hibernia]

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The percentage of population point is a bit mute a bit of a comfort blanket. Most of that figure are watching Celtic or Rangers. None of the rest of us average 20,000 its a very dificult issue to resolve. Money comes from tv and sponsorship but quite obviously our product doesnt attract the required audience. How do you resolve that?

I mean, most leagues will have a couple of big clubs that people want to watch and who will also inflate the overall attendance figures for that league.

I doubt if there's many people outside a particular country that really want to watch matches not involving the biggest teams in that country. Same as here. Yet our TV deal is still rubbish compared to other places

[CentreLine]

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People in Scotland pay Sky etc subscriptions to watch English football, and to a lesser extent Rangers/Celtic there is no market for anything else. Who watches Scottish club football on TV? Very rarely me, zero interest other than watching Hibs, and can't remember last time I paid to watch Hibs on TV.

I suppose it’s all about opinions and preferences. I certainly prefer to watch Scottish football because it still retains a passion and reality. I find the EPL robotic and boring. If I do catch a game from England it is likely to be from their Championship. It at least feels genuine and not contrived. For me their EPL is contrived and overhyped whilst likely to be overtaken by the Saudi stuff, because, for these people, it’s all about money.

[cabbageandribs1875]

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I suppose it’s all about opinions and preferences. I certainly prefer to watch Scottish football because it still retains a passion and reality. I find the EPL robotic and boring. If I do catch a game from England it is likely to be from their Championship. It at least feels genuine and not contrived. For me their EPL is contrived and overhyped whilst likely to be overtaken by the Saudi stuff, because, for these people, it’s all about money.

Ditto if there's a clash between two lower league Scottish sides and an EPL game(unless it involved Leeds) i'll normally watch the Scottish game and now Leeds are back in the Championship i've not watched an EPL game, yet

[Pagan Hibernia]

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People in Scotland pay Sky etc subscriptions to watch English football, and to a lesser extent Rangers/Celtic there is no market for anything else. Who watches Scottish club football on TV? Very rarely me, zero interest other than watching Hibs, and can't remember last time I paid to watch Hibs on TV.

I must be mad but I watch a fair amount of Scottish football. Its rarely pretty, but it's earthy and more soulful to me than the glamour leagues ever will be. It's blood and thunder and passion.

I do accept that I'm in a tiny minority though and your point about there not being an adequate market for our game abroad is impossible to argue with at the moment

[hibby rae]

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People in Scotland pay Sky etc subscriptions to watch English football, and to a lesser extent Rangers/Celtic there is no market for anything else. Who watches Scottish club football on TV? Very rarely me, zero interest other than watching Hibs, and can't remember last time I paid to watch Hibs on TV.

Personally speaking I'd far rather watch a Scottish game than an English one. Big fan of the Championship on BBC Scotland on Friday nights

[Musselbound]

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Personally speaking I'd far rather watch a Scottish game than an English one. Big fan of the Championship on BBC Scotland on Friday nights

Don't know about that but at least the Scottish Championship is quite difficult to predict - unlike the Scottish Premiership. I do enjoy watching the games too.

[DH1875]

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Don't know about that but at least the Scottish Championship is quite difficult to predict - unlike the Scottish Premiership. I do enjoy watching the games too.

Not sure about that. I predict Dundee Utd will win it quite comfortably.

[NAE NOOKIE]

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Personally speaking I'd far rather watch a Scottish game than an English one. Big fan of the Championship on BBC Scotland on Friday nights

Me as well .... I'll watch pretty well any game of football to be honest, but if the Scottish Championship game was on versus match of the day on a Saturday night I'd watch the Championship game all day long.

[marinello59]

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Personally speaking I'd far rather watch a Scottish game than an English one. Big fan of the Championship on BBC Scotland on Friday nights

I’m the same, I love our game.

[Since90+2]

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I’m the same, I love our game.

Me too. I'd honestly rather watch Partick V Dunfermline on a Friday night than a West Ham v Bournemouth or something similar.

[He's here!]

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People in Scotland pay Sky etc subscriptions to watch English football, and to a lesser extent Rangers/Celtic there is no market for anything else. Who watches Scottish club football on TV? Very rarely me, zero interest other than watching Hibs, and can't remember last time I paid to watch Hibs on TV.

You just need to look at today's fixtures featuring Killie, Ross Co, Livi, St Mirren, Dundee and St Johnstone. Who, apart from fans of those clubs, would actually opt to spend their afternoon watching them if the games were on TV? As someone else has said, the Sky deal is for Old Firm fans to watch away games.

[Phil MaGlass]

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The obvious answer is money but you need to ask why we’re so far behind in that respect? It’s criminal that we pay the same Sky subscriptions that punters down South pay but the money from Sky UK is extremely poor coming back in a TV deal. Also, the way Scottish football tries everything it can to keep the cartel of Celtic and Rangers basically stops any meaningful league competition. It’s a self serving spiral to the bottom. Who would plough money into such a corrupt set up?

The reason is we didnt go with SKY but went with Setanta, then when that went tils up they said F you Scotland, you will take what we offer, simple.

[Stairway 2 7]

Wonder if there is similar navel gazing on Swiss forums. Two of their teams beat by Scots or in Sweeden, their champions scrapped through against our 3rd.

We're a level bellow the top leagues and just like other small nations the gap will get bigger due to money

[The Spaceman]

Worst results in Europe this season so far:

1. Inter Descales 2 - 1 Hibs.
2. PAOK 4 - 0 Hearts.
3. PSV 5 - 1 Rangers.
4. Aberdeen 1 - 3 Haken.
5. Hibs 0 - 5 Aston Villa.

[Waxy]

Maybe time the big Five countries played euro football against each other.