Since 2024, European governing body Uefa has given club coefficients over the latest five-year period an important role via something called “title-holder rebalancing”.
Therefore, should the Champions League winners have also qualified for the league phase via their domestic league position, “the club with the best individual coefficient of all the domestic champions involved in qualifying will enter the league phase directly instead of the original round they had qualified for”.
Ironically, last season’s beneficiaries were Olympiakos, with European champions Paris St-Germain having already qualified as French title winners.
The Piraeus side had finished seven points behind Athens neighbours AEK in the Greek Super League, but this season the positions look likely to be reversed.
A 1-0 defeat at home to an AEK side for whom former Hearts left-back James Penrice was back in the starting line-up after a two-game absence leaves Olympiakos five points adrift of the leaders.
Indeed, Jose Luis Mendilibar’s side have slipped to third behind PAOK Salonica, who drew 0-0 at home to Panathinaikos with former Celtic left-back Greg Taylor an unused substitute on the bench.
There are five games left of the title play-offs, during which the top four play one another twice and statisticians suggest Olympiakos only have a 16% chance of securing a 49th domestic title.
Olympiakos are again the club with the most co-efficient points from countries outside the top six in Europe, but if they fail to retain that title, Rangers are next in line for that spot straight into the Champions League’s league phase.
There will be more than a few Rangers supporters monitoring the results when AEK entertain PAOK while Panathinaikos host Olympiakos next on Sunday, 19 April.
