The bigger picture of Celtic’s humiliating disaster, at the home, of course, of the Lisbon Lions, is the reality for Scottish football. And how Celtic embarrassment affects Rangers.

No one needs to be told twice how poor Scottish football actually is. That’s become abundantly clear in recent times.

Yes, season 2025/26 was a much stronger domestic game, with Motherwell and Hearts proving to be huge opponents for the Old Firm, to say the least.

But traditionally, the league is usually between two sides, and that, of course, is Rangers and Celtic.

However, there have been some credible displays on the continental front in the past.

Rangers’ Former European Dominance

Rangers, of course, dominated the Europa League for years without managing to win the darn thing. At certain points, Rangers were one of the genuinely feared sides in that competition.

Of course, it didn’t translate too well to the Champions League, when the side was completely outclassed on every single level.

Celtic fans were only too gleeful about this, while ignoring the fact that they too were struggling at the top levels of competition in that domain.

Naturally, of course, they had a slightly stronger Champions League two or three seasons ago, where they managed to get through to the knockout stage, only to fall to Bayern Munich.

But in general terms, Rangers and Celtic’s performances in Europe have been ghastly.

Is that because the standard of the competition is too high, or Rangers and Celtic are just too poor?

In reality, it’s probably somewhere in the middle.

But what it does reflect is, simply put, the low standard of Scottish football.

The Decline of Scottish Football in Europe

Because this is not the Champions League that Rangers and Celtic are crumbling in. It’s the Europa League now. And, the Conference League.

Rangers, from being titans in this level of competition, not only crashed out of it under Danny Röhl last season at the league stage, having miraculously got there by way of Russell Martin, of all people.

But this summer, of course, we’re nowhere near the level to even hit the league stage of the Europa League, and we’re nowhere near the level to reach the Conference League either.

Celtic, by pure luck and coefficient, got their place in the Europa League, having lost the Champions League qualifiers.

And of course, we are seeing now just how atrocious Celtic are in Europe.

They got the signings that they wanted. They got a decent boost to their squad in the summer, and of course their fans are not too happy about how abysmal their form has been in the past two months.

Defeats all over the place, and probably record levels of protest against the board.

But the harsh reality from a fair Ibrox Noise is that neither Rangers nor Celtic are anywhere near European competition levels.

Neither side is capable of that.

It is bizarre that Celtic, with all the free cash that they’ve had over the last decade plus, and indeed the free rein that they’ve had domestically too, have been unable to replicate that in Europe. So Celtic embarrassment affects Rangers.

It probably does help a lot that the referees have been favourable towards them domestically. Ibrox Noise has, of course, explained why that is.

Scotland’s European Coefficient Crisis

But the damning bigger picture is how it’s crushing the coefficient domestically.

The coefficient for Scotland now is pretty abysmal.

The system was, of course, changed regarding the impact of who got benefits from what position in Europe, by way of individual performance rewards rather than country based.

This should have helped Rangers, but it was Celtic who benefited.

That is, Rangers would have got through to an absolute jackpot kitty in the Champions League had they been able to win the title last season or the season before.

But the team has been well off winning that, so that in itself has been a nonstarter.

Rangers and Celtic’s repeated embarrassments on the continental front show just how badly Scottish football has declined from the literal recent heyday under Steven Gerrard, Giovanni van Bronckhorst and even Philippe Clement.

Nowadays, both teams are on the absolute European scrap heap and a complete embarrassment nationally to the country when it comes to European attainment.

Rangers Must Focus on Winning the League

But of course, the reality is Europe is far off for Rangers.

We do not need Europe for now because what we need right now is to win the league. Even though Celtic embarrassment affects Rangers.

We need the bread and butter back, and it is benefiting us domestically with better results and performances because we’re not having to compete on several fronts.

But it’s still a bad picture to see your marquee sides crumbling when it comes to the global stage, which both Rangers and Celtic have done.

When will that change?

It’ll be a long cycle before we see strong teams from Glasgow in European competition again.