THE SPL title winners will be guaranteed a place in the group stage of the Champions League when the revamped tournament begins next year.
Chelsea's elimination of Olympiakos from this season's competition on Wednesday night has ensured Scotland will finish no lower than 12th in the Uefa co-efficient ranking table at the end of the current campaign.
That is the new cut-off point fo
r countries whose domestic league winners will qualify directly for the lucrative group phase of the Champions League, the result of changes pushed through by Uefa president Michel Platini.
Scotland are currently 11th in the provisional ranking list but can now only be overtaken by one of the countries below them, 13th placed Belgium. Ahead of Wednesday night, Greece could also have leapfrogged Scotland, but they lost their final representative this season when Olympiakos lost 3-0 at Stamford Bridge.
It means next season's SPL champions will go straight into the group stage of the 2009-10 Champions League. The runners-up will still face two qualifying rounds under the new format.
The current campaign has seen Scotland rack up its highest co-efficient points total since 1982-83 when the Pittodrie club won the Cup Winners' Cup and Dundee United reached the quarter-finals of the Uefa Cup.
The possibility also remains that this season's SPL champions will also claim a place in the group phase of the Champions League next season, the final campaign where the point of entry to the tournament is decided under current regulations.
The full article contains 261 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
