UEFA has confirmed that qualification for both the Champions League and the revised Europa League is to change for Scottish Premier League clubs.

The winners of this season’s SPL will receive automatic seeding in the Group stages of the UEFA Champions League as per usual.

However, the biggest change is that should the SPL runners-up fail to reach the group stages of the UEFA Champions League, they will receive a place in the third qualifying stage of the Europa league rather than nothing.

For example, Rangers lost out on European football this year after losing to FBK Kaunas in qualifying, sealing their exit from European football for this season. However, the new system would mean that Rangers would have dropped into the Europa league instead.

Qualification for the UEFA Champions League is set to prove more difficult for SPL clubs, with possible ties more likely to include top Dutch clubs or English Premier League clubs in the third round of qualifying.

The Scottish cup winners, or runners up, will join the Europa league in the final qualifying round as well.

The fourth-placed team in the SPL will join the Europa League one stage earlier in the second qualifying round, though the side that finishes fourth will find themselves having an early start to the season, with fixtures scheduled for 16 July 2009.