This season’s Scottish Premiership runners-up will still enter the Champions League in the second qualifying round.
If they win their first qualifier they are guaranteed Europa League football at minimum.
This will change as of 2026-27.
Second place will by right only earn a spot in the second qualifying round of the Conference League.
The Scottish Cup carries a place in the Europa League, which would pass to the runners-up if the winners finished in the top two.
But that is going be in the first qualifying round in mid-July, two rounds earlier than this season and four ties from the league phase.
It will become harder for the champions, too.
Presently, they join in the play-off round and only need to win one tie to make the Champions League. Lose it and they are guaranteed a spot in the Europa League.
Next season’s champions are set to enter in the second qualifying round in 2027-28, meaning they must win three ties to reach the league phase.
There is no automatic Europa League safety net, either.
It will be possible for the champions to lose in consecutive qualifying rounds of all three competitions.
That would be in the second round of the Champions League, third round of the Europa League and then the play-off round of the Conference League.
The champions could miss out on league-phase football altogether.
Cyprus and Denmark are set to be the beneficiaries, with their coefficient boosted this season by their best ever European campaigns.
They will receive two places in the Champions League instead, with Austria the other country to fall out of the top 15.
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