The race for third place in the Scottish Premiership has been rendered almost redundant following St Johnstone’s dramatic penalty shootout win against Rangers at Ibrox on Sunday.
That’s good news if you are a neutral but bad news for Aberdeen. as Rangers’ exit from the Scottish Cup guarantees the winners of the competition will qualify for the Europa League.
The Dons were already facing an uphill task in trying to catch Hibernian, who have a six point lead with three games remaining but other than pride and prize money of £250,000 the race for the Europa League is officially done and dusted as far as Stephen Glass’ men are concerned.
Third place no longer brings Europa League football.
Hibs can still qualify for the Europa League but to do so they must win the Scottish Cup. If they do lift the trophy next month then, as cup winners they’ll be in the play-off round for a place in the group stages of UEFA’s second tier competition with the club which finishes fifth in the Premiership also qualifying for Europe.
Given Aberdeen failed to reach the play-off round in seven attempts under former manager Derek McInnes, and the fact defeat in the play-off will come will be rewarded with a place in the group stages of the new third tier tournament, the Conference League, you can see why the quarter-final defeat to Dundee United on Sunday has been doubly costly for the Dons.
St Mirren, St Johnstone and Dundee United will also have designs on cup glory of course but for Aberdeen it has become largely irrelevant. Now their Europa League hopes have been dashed they know the Conference League is the only show is town for them this summer.
If Aberdeen can avoid defeat at Livingston on Saturday then European football will be on the menu at Pittodrie for their eighth year in a row this summer but unlike the previous seven campaigns, this will be new territory for Aberdeen.
For starters, unlike the Europa League and Champions League, no club will automatically qualify for the group stage. The 10 teams eliminated from the Europa League play-offs will enter the 32-team group stage where they will be joined by the sides who have come through a similar qualifying round process in the new competition.
The price at the end of it all is not just the honour of being the inaugural Conference League champions but with it comes automatic qualification for the Europa League the following season.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin believes the new tournament will meet the demand from clubs for more European tournament football.
Speaking at the launch of the Conference League Ceferin said: “The new UEFA club competition makes UEFA’s club competitions more inclusive than ever before.
“There will be more matches for more clubs, with more associations represented in the group stages.
“There was a widespread demand by all clubs to increase their chances of participating more regularly in European competition.
“This has been achieved with a strategic approach and in accordance with UEFA’s objective of having both more quality and more inclusivity in our club competitions.”
As ever, it will be an early start but not as early as previous campaigns due to the delayed European Championships taking place in June.
A familiar two-legged format gets underway from July 8 and runs every week until August 26, the date of the second leg of the play-off round. As with the Europa League that’s four rounds if you are keeping count.
The group stages get underway on September 16 but unlike the Thursday night glamour of the Europa League this new tournament could prove somewhat trickier for fans to attend with matches scheduled to kick-off at 3.30pm.
A tough task for fans, many of whom will be at work or just heading home from school.
But, if Aberdeen do enjoy an extended run in Europe next season this will be when you will see them.