Glasgow Rangers may be out of the Europa League, but their performances in Europe this term has done wonders for Scotland’s coefficient.

Rangers’ silver lining

The Gers were knocked out in the Europa League round of 16 on Thursday after they lost 3-1 to Slavia Prague on aggregate.

While they are no longer in the competition, Scotland are now up to 11th in the coefficient standings and are set to stay there (ESPN, Dale Johnson) – that means the winners of the Scottish Premiership next term are all but guaranteed to have an automatic place in the Champions League from the 21/22 season.

Financially beneficial

This will no doubt be beneficial for the Gers. For a start, if they can win the Premiership again next season, they will avoid the numerous rounds of qualification they have had to go through in recent seasons in European competition, and would therefore be able to enjoy a longer pre-season.

Not only that, though, they could receive a financial boost as a result. All teams in the group stage of Europe’s premier club competition this year picked up at least €15.25m (£13.1m, football-coefficient.eu), and that is without even getting into the money they will receive from from television deals – that sum is only likely to increase in the future.

In other news, Rangers are interested in this 18-goal striker.