'Embarrassing' - Alex Crook makes Rangers admission after Champions League development

Alex Crook has suggested it is “embarrassing” that Scottish Football has lost its guaranteed Champions League place, despite the fact Rangers have punched above their weight.

Philippe Clement’s side are set to get their Europa League campaign underway against Malmo on Thursday (26 September) having once again failed to qualify for the Champions League this season.

Scotland’s fall in the coefficient rankings means that the Premiership winner won’t be guaranteed a place in the Champions League next season and talkSPORT journalist and host Crook has laid the blame with Celtic.

Speaking on talkSPORT on Friday (20 September, 10:25) Crook said: “It is embarrassing for Scottish football that other nations are overtaking them in terms of the number of European places available and the number of places available in the Champions League.

“In fairness to him, we were there in the final in Seville and Rangers in recent years have probably punched above their weight in Europe and it has been Celtic who have underwhelmed.”

Who are Rangers playing in the Europa League this season?

While it is embarrassing for Scottish football as a whole to lose its guaranteed Champions League place, it is hard to suggest that the Gers are the side at fault given their success on the continent in the last few years.

Although the Light Blues have flattered to deceive in their rare forays into the Champions League, they have been reasonably successful in the Europa League, even if they’ve not quite managed to get their hands on silverware.

Of course, qualifying for Europe’s top-flight competition would have provided a massive financial boost to Clement’s side this season, but it would have also likely harmed the Scottish coefficient further if they struggled to pick up results.

Hopefully, both the Gers and Celtic will manage to progress past the new-look group stage in each of their competitions so that Scotland can begin to make their way back up those rankings.

It would be a massive blow to the overall health of the Scottish game if there were to be no Scottish clubs in the Champions League next term.

In other Rangers news, a financial fair play problem has been mooted at Ibrox after new Saudi investment was mooted in Glasgow

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