FIFA has officially agreed with Roma manager Gian Gasperini to limit Celtic fans in Europe over their indifferent attitude.

What Celtic need to stay alive in Europa League and why Rangers have a hypothetical £40m at stake

No dead rubbers as Celtic and Rangers return to European action

Europa League football returns on Thursday night and while Celtic harbour ambitions of reaching the knock-out stages there is – potentially – plenty at stake for Rangers too despite being already eliminated.

Celtic’s record in the competition this season is a real mixed bag – perhaps no surprise given three different managers have been in the dugout. Brendan Rodgers oversaw the opening three fixtures which yielded four points from a possible nine with a draw at Red Star Belgrade followed by a 2-0 home defeat to Braga and a 2-1 home victory over Sturm Graz.

Martin O’Neill was in charge for the 3-1 away defeat to Midtjylland in November but then masterminded a stunning 3-1 victory against Feyenoord in Rotterdam which ignited Celtic’s hopes of progessing beyond the league phase.

The 3-0 defeat to Roma at Celtic Park under Wilfried Nancy in December was a setback, but the return of O’Neill has provided renewed hope of securing a place in the play-off round with the Hoops currently occupying the last qualifying position, sitting 24th in the table on seven points, with two matches remaining.

First up for the Hoops is a trip to Bologna where they will come up against last season’s Coppa Italia winners, who are captained Scotland midfielder Lewis Ferguson.

Bologna are not enjoying a great spell of form, winning just one of their last nine matches in all competitions, however, they are still in with a shout of securing a top eight finish in the Europa League and automatic qualification to the last 16. The Italians currently sit 13th on 11 points and would need to beat Celtic and Maccabi Tel-Aviv away next week to clinch top eight.

For Celtic, 10 points will secure qualification for the play-off round, which will be achieved by either winning in Bologna or beating Utrecht at Celtic Park next week. Nine points – in other words drawing both matches – could also be enough depending on how the land lies at the end of matchday eight.

No dead rubbers for Rangers

For Rangers, there is more than just pride on offer when they host Ludogorets at Ibrox on Thursday before concluding their campaign away to Porto next week.

Danny Rohl’s side have already been eliminated after collecting just a single point from their six matches so far, which came in the 1-1 draw with Braga at Ibrox. Defeats to Genk, Sturm Graz, Brann, Roma and Ferencvaros have left them 33rd in the table with no hope of reaching the knockout stages.

Rangers cannot afford to treat their remaining two matches lightly if they have ambitions of securing automatic qualification for the Champions League next season – the potential prize on offer if the win the Scottish title this season.

As things stand, Rangers are top of Uefa’s five-year club coefficient table in the race for direct entry to the Champions League – worth an estimated £40million – for winners of domestic leagues in 2025-26.

Their position, however, is coming under threat after Olympiacos moved to within a single point of the Ibrox club following their victory over Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Wednesday.

If the Greeks win again away to Ajax next week to progress to the UCL knockout stages, then they will almost certainly finish above Rangers in the coefficient rankings, meaning they would take the automatic UCL slot if they win the Greek Super League – regardless of what happens in Scotland. Olympiacos are currently two points behind leaders PAOK with a game in hand.

If Olympiacos lose next week to Ajax then they cannot catch Rangers, regardless of Rangers’ results in their last two Europa League matches. If the match in Amsterdam ends in a draw, Olympiacos move to 59.5 points, and Rangers, who are on 59.25 points, would need one win and one draw from their remaining two fixtures to stay above Olympiacos, assuming nine points eliminates the Greeks leaving them unable to further enhance their coefficient total.

Should Olympiacos fail to overtake them, then Rangers’ attentions would turn to FC Copenhagen and Shakhtar Donetsk with both sides still mathematically able to overtake the Ibrox side this season if they go deep in the Champions League and Conference League respectively.

Two matches against Ludogorets and Porto which appeared to be dead rubbers now carry greater significance for Rangers. However, they are currently six points behind Hearts at the top of the Scottish Premiership table and have a lot of work to do both domestically and in Europe to ensure their hypothetical dream scenario comes true.