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Scottish clubs. Massive outperformance in Europe?


FredFlintsone

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It may not seem like it at times but the facts speak for themselves. With a population of 5.5 million Scotland is one of the smallest countries in Europe yet in 70 years our clubs have competed in 10 finals of UEFA's major club competions ie. the European Cup/Champions League, Cup Winnners Cup (now defunct) and the UEFA cup/Europe League.

No other small country  even comes close to that performance. 

 

Only the following countries clubs have competed in more finals than Scottish clubs.

Spain, England, Germany, Italy, France, Portugal, Netherlands.

 

Our ten finals have been split amongst 4 different clubs which is incredible given how small our league is.

And we've had 3 finalists in the last 18 years so it's not like all this was achieved in the dim and distant past.

 

We've had 3 winners; Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen

 

By way of comparision;

That's more than France with 2 winners; Marseille and Paris St Germain.

Turkey (population 84M) has had 1 finalist (and winner)

Poland (population 35M) has had 1 finalist

Russia/USSR (population 145M) have had 6 finalists

 

 

 

 

 

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I like to think that it's down to our sheer passion for the game. Such a small population and we still ranking among the top 10 of average attendances at league games. Obviously it's also the Old Firm's money these days which propels them forward, but the passion for football in Scotland is an equally big part of it imo.

Edited by RossBFaeDundee
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49 minutes ago, oaksoft said:

Going back 70 years is very misleading.

The bigger picture is that since money started to dominate, only a handful of countries are routinely making finals at Euro level.

Outside of Spain, England, Italy and Germany almost nobody else is getting a look-in.

Europe is becoming similar to any national league in that only a handful will realistically compete for the biggest prizes.

Stop pissing on the poor lads chips, having loads of money isn't exactly helping Terrorist Funding Homophobic & Misogynist FC.

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1 hour ago, oaksoft said:

Going back 70 years is very misleading.

The bigger picture is that since money started to dominate, only a handful of countries are routinely making finals at Euro level.

Outside of Spain, England, Italy and Germany almost nobody else is getting a look-in.

Europe is becoming similar to any national league in that only a handful will realistically compete for the biggest prizes.

Ah ok so you want to pick and choose the time period to suit your narrative. I'll go back 18/19 years then. Scottish clubs have played in 3 finals in that time so averaging a final once every every 6 years or so.

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30 minutes ago, FredFlintsone said:

Ah ok so you want to pick and choose the time period to suit your narrative. I'll go back 18/19 years then. Scottish clubs have played in 3 finals in that time so averaging a final once every every 6 years or so.

I had the same debate on the coefficient thread M8 with the usual suspects, it's to open minded and too positive for the diddies on here.
They're happy with the parochial outlook and the small country small mentality debate on the dosh. 

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3 hours ago, wastecoatwilly said:

I had the same debate on the coefficient thread M8 with the usual suspects, it's to open minded and too positive for the diddies on here.
They're happy with the parochial outlook and the small country small mentality debate on the dosh. 

Yes and of course the media are just as bad with their oft repeated "Rangers have no right being in the Europa League final" line. Almost as bad as the dreaded "punching above our weight" pish.

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1 hour ago, guinness said:

So can someone enlighten me to who's in what European competition's next season. 

Celtic - Champions League Group Stage

Sevco - Champions League 3rd Qualifying Round

Hearts - Europa League Play Off Round

Dundee United - Europa Conference League 3rd Qualifying round

Motherwell - Europa Conference League 2nd Qualifying round

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11 hours ago, Lionsof67 said:

Celtic - Champions League Group Stage

Sevco - Champions League 3rd Qualifying Round

Hearts - Europa League Play Off Round

Dundee United - Europa Conference League 3rd Qualifying round

Motherwell - Europa Conference League 2nd Qualifying round

Thanks. 

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Nice to see someone trying to give Scottish football a lift and the stats are interesting.  Equally, we can't really ignore the timescale issue. 

After all, if you only look at bare numbers, the team behind Celtic (40) and Rangers (34) in the number of Scottish Cup wins is Queen's Park (10). I don't think that's much of a guide to future performance. 😉

Having said that, I have no problem bringing out positive stories about our game. For the national side, we'll know soon enough - in the FIFA rankings we are at 39, Ukraine are at 27 and if we get to Wales, they are at 18.  Get through these and the national side ranking will improve. For club sides, setting aside the tribalism and rivalry for 5 minutes, it would be brilliant to see more sides do well in European competitions next season. 

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13 hours ago, FredFlintsone said:

Hopefully Celtic can do their bit this year and earn a decent number of coefficient points. Barring the odd outlier they've been rank rotten in Europe for well over a decade now. 

They wont given its straight to the CL group stages, might get lucky and get enough to make 3rd 

And as much as we got to seville, id say the same for rangers if we get to the CL groups, the step up is quite big and especially after our run this year, teams wont take us lightly, 

Hope im wrong mind you

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15 hours ago, FredFlintsone said:

Hopefully Celtic can do their bit this year and earn a decent number of coefficient points. Barring the odd outlier they've been rank rotten in Europe for well over a decade now. 

Mince,Celtic's 10 years ranking is higher than any Scottish club granted sevco were on a journey for most of that and made up for that over the last 3 or 4 years.
The accumulation of points has put the Scottish league into the top 10 of leagues across Europe so credit goes both ways M8.   

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4 hours ago, wastecoatwilly said:

Mince,Celtic's 10 years ranking is higher than any Scottish club granted sevco were on a journey for most of that and made up for that over the last 3 or 4 years.
The accumulation of points has put the Scottish league into the top 10 of leagues across Europe so credit goes both ways M8.   

They've been pretty rubbish though considering their resources. They've not won a knockout tie (that wasn't a qualifier) since 2004 when they beat Barcelona of all teams. In fact most of the knockout ties aren't even close. The last 3 defeats are to Bodo Glimt (lost by 4), Copenhagen (lost by 2), Zenit St Petersburg (lost by 2). As regards the Champions league let's not go there!  

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On 21/05/2022 at 22:38, FredFlintsone said:

Only the following countries clubs have competed in more finals than Scottish clubs.

Spain, England, Germany, Italy, France, Portugal, Netherlands.

 

 

 

 

Ooops missed out Belgium who have had 11 finalists. Last one being Antwerp way back in 1993

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5 hours ago, FredFlintsone said:

They've been pretty rubbish though considering their resources. They've not won a knockout tie (that wasn't a qualifier) since 2004 when they beat Barcelona of all teams. In fact most of the knockout ties aren't even close. The last 3 defeats are to Bodo Glimt (lost by 4), Copenhagen (lost by 2), Zenit St Petersburg (lost by 2). As regards the Champions league let's not go there!  

I couldn't give 2 fecks about knockout ties it's about winning games and collecting coefficient points even thou sevco got to a final they only won one more game than Celtic this season and got some of their points from bonuses.
Celtic will get bonus points for being in the group stages next season so hopefully sevco can join us.

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2 hours ago, wastecoatwilly said:

I couldn't give 2 fecks about knockout ties it's about winning games and collecting coefficient points even thou sevco got to a final they only won one more game than Celtic this season and got some of their points from bonuses.
Celtic will get bonus points for being in the group stages next season so hopefully sevco can join us.

How can you not give a f**k about knockout ties then say its about winning games and collecting coefficient points, both of which you can do IN KNOCKOUT TIES 🤣🤣🤣

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6 hours ago, 54_and_counting said:

How can you not give a f**k about knockout ties then say its about winning games and collecting coefficient points, both of which you can do IN KNOCKOUT TIES 🤣🤣🤣

Celtic won 6 games in Europe sevco won 7,it's irrelevant how you do it, you don't get any coefficient points for losing games. 

Edited by wastecoatwilly
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