Scottish teams face a difficult route to the group stages of the Europa League with only Rangers entering the competition after the first qualifying round.
Both Aberdeen and Motherwell are seeded for the first phase of the competition, with Rangers and the Dons also enjoying seeding in the second round should they make it through their first leg.
Motherwell, as it stands, are set to miss out on seeding in the second qualifying round as a result of their coefficient and will need TWO teams seeded in the first round to fail to make the second phase.
READ MORE: The remarkable coefficient stat that no one is talking about
In order to secure a second-round seed, the Steelmen need two of the following teams below to fail to progress through the first qualifying round:
- APOEL Nicosia
- Malmö FF
- Partizan Belgrade
- FCSB
- NK Maribor
- Hapoel Beer-Sheva
- Rosenborg BK
- Apollon Limassol
- FC Fehérvár
- Shkendija Tetovo
- The New Saints
- Dinamo Minsk
- Lech Poznan
- Aberdeen
- Zrinjski Mostar
- Kairat Almaty
- Zalgiris Vilnius
While ideally for the Scottish coefficient, Aberdeen will qualify, this leaves 16 other teams that could hand Motherwell hope for a second round seeding.
Alternatively, if only one of the teams listed failed to make it through, Motherwell would need to hope that AGF Aarhus also do not qualify as they are the only unseeded team above the Scottish side in terms of coefficient.
There are a number of tricky fixtures to negotiate that could bring hope for Motherwell, however first they will need to see off Breidablik, NSI Runavik or HB Torshavn.
The first round draw will be played on August 27 and will be a one-legged affair.
The first round draw takes place today in Nyon, Switzerland at 12pm.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here