Ibrox fan sites boast about a co-efficient boost. But Celtic are the primary beneficiaries.

Yesterday, the media was indulging in one of its favourite, and most tiresome, pastimes; telling us how brilliant the Ibrox club are and about how they are almost single-handedly responsible for the Scottish football co-efficient in Europe.

More relentless claims about how they are in the “top ten” for putting points on the board only adds to the daftness of the claim. They have done reasonably well in the second tier competition; they are only there in the first place because they weren’t good enough for the one we were in.

I am perfectly happy with our own contribution to the co-efficient. I am even happier that in order to make maximum use of it you really need to be the champions and get the smoothest path to the Champions League.

Without that, all you are doing is setting things up for the side which does play in that tournament, and allowing them to hoover up the cash. It’s not for nothing that so many of our fans mock our “co-efficient monkeys.”

In the absence of them winning the thing – which they aren’t going to do – this is all just noise and nonsense and not even meeting the level of a consolation prize. That the principal beneficiaries of their run will be Celtic, first and foremost, is hardly even up for debate. As long as we keep on winning the league that’s all that matters.

The obsession over the co-efficient and this tendency to boast to the world about how they’ve built it is a poor substitute for being able to boast about the trophy haul of late. In some ways, it’s reminiscent of their decision, at the AGM last year, to take a handful of trophies along for show which their women’s team and their kid’s sides had secured; we were able to parade the Championship trophy and the Scottish Cup. They looked ridiculous. We looked successful.

But they cling to whatever little baubles they can, and they look increasingly desperate doing it. There’s also a sense that Scotland should in some way be grateful to them; in truth, the co-efficient doesn’t help most clubs in this country and even those who it does have some material impact on rarely capitalise on rises in it.

It would also be an easier argument to stomach if they gave a damn about other Scottish clubs; I’ve checked their forums on European nights and they are filled with bile, wishing every other club in the country to crash and burn. In contrast, most Celtic fans do wish other clubs from this country well; all but one, and there are good reasons why we don’t and I will talk about one of those later on.

So no. Scottish football certainly does not owe them gratitude, especially since they are themselves utterly incapable of wishing other sides from this country well when they go into the European arena. If there was a vote to make it so that co-efficient points didn’t benefit the rest of the country at all they’d put their x’s beside that option without a moment’s hesitation and everyone else be damned.

They were well beaten on Thursday night, and a smarter club, covered by a better media, might take a moment to reflect on that. They won’t, of course. They will ignore the result on the night and the inconvenient fact that if they are clinging to the Survival Lie that it represents a little bit of unwanted history in that it’s their fourth defeat at home in a row, the first time that’s ever happened. Bazza’s “record” is now played four, lost two.

But in their season of calamity and downfall, what’s another defeat? You can see why they might cling to the co-efficient as the big story to put forth here. Losers do tend to focus on their silver and bronze medals and on their hard luck stories. They do tend to find things other than actual triumphs to hold onto. The kind of club which comes out of a losing cup final telling the world they were the real winners on the day.

The irony is that we might actually be the ultimate winners here this time too. At some stage their exploits here might factor in to why we’re back in the Champions League Groups without having to qualify for them, simply by being the best team in Scotland, and if that days comes you will see their contradictory rubbish exposed in full as they rant and rave and wail about that and the injustice of it all.

That’s another thing that the losers do. The winners get to reap the benefits.