SCOTLAND's coefficient has been flying in recent years. 

Unfortunately, this season, it has taken a bit of a blow due to the performance of Scottish clubs in Europe. 

But it's definitely not all bad news at this stage.

Scotland still holds its top ten spot in the UEFA coefficient rankings despite some pretty poor results from Celtic, Rangers and Hearts, as well as Dundee United and Motherwell in the summer.

The nation has moved down one spot, though, from eighth to ninth, so our teams must be careful not to drop out of that section. 

If they were to drop out of the top ten, then that's where things become more difficult for Scottish clubs to qualify for European competitions once more.

This season, because of that coveted top ten spot, Celtic automatically qualified for the group stages of the Champions League, while Rangers had one less qualifier to play. They of course made it through to the groups also.

Furthermore, Hearts were guaranteed a Europa League play-off, albeit, they lost to Zurich and dropped into the Conference League.

It's been tough going from there on in, mind you, with just two wins registered by a Scottish side. Hearts managed both of those in the Conference against RFS.

Rangers lost all six of their group games while Celtic did manage to muster up two draws.

Overall, these poor results have reflected on Scotland's coefficient. Just 3.5 points have been added to the ranking.

Individual contributions are as follows: Rangers (6.5), Celtic (6), Hearts (4) Dundee United (1), Motherwell (0).

The clubs' individual returns are divided by five (the number of teams entered into UEFA competitions) to arrive at the 3.5 figure. This leaves the overall coefficient score at 36.400.

So, despite losing all of their games, Rangers finished as Scotland's highest contributors. However, they did play at least three more matches than every other club due to their qualifiers in August.

As has been shown, while our clubs qualifying for the Champions League is a positive, getting results when there to keep the coefficient riding high has proved tough.

As a result, Belgium have jumped into eighth spot, leaving Scotland in ninth.

Austria are in tenth, but like Scotland all six of their representatives have been eliminated. 

Austria currently sit on 33.600 points to Scotland's 36.400, so they're still some way off overtaking.