If I had had my way, Scottish football would not have suffered a humiliation such as we witnessed on Thursday night.
For one of our clubs to lose 7-0 at HOME to Swedish opposition is a major embarrassment.
The 9-0 aggregate was put into context when it was confirmed as the worst-ever by one of our teams in Continental competition.
I have always felt awarding the Scottish Cup runners-up a European place, when the winners have already qualified, invites such disasters upon us. And, in fact, after I was appointed Chief Executive of the SFA, one of the first things I did was try to get it changed so the places went entirely by league placing.
Unfortunately I was too late.
UEFA told me the rule could not be changed.
And that has been bad news for Scotland and for our co-efficient.
As Celtic manager Neil Lennon mentioned recently, the fate of our top clubs in Europe is partially determined by our lowest-ranked qualifiers.
Hibernian finished seventh in the SPL last season. For the size of our country, having our seventh-best side represent us is a stretch.
It has, of course, been much worse. We have had Gretna, Queen of the South and Dunfermline in recent years.
Now, I don’t want to deny supporters of these clubs their fun. European occasions are magnificent. You only need to look at the pleasure everyone connected with St Johnstone derived from their victory over Norwegian giants, Rosenborg.
But the fact is that we quite often see scenarios where we get a club from the lower divisions through to the Cup Final. They rarely win, though, and when put through as European qualifiers, they invariably go out in the first round.
Witness Derry City’s 5-1 demolition of the now-defunct Gretna in 2006. And for that to have an impact on Celtic in their pursuit of a place in the Champions League last 16 just doesn’t make sense. I am all for anyone who wins the Cup getting their chance.
Who can forget Raith Rovers going off on a great European adventure after winning the Coca-Cola Cup 1994? They had a great team at the time, including the likes of Stevie Crawford, Jim McInally and Danny Lennon.
Danny famously scored the goal which saw them lead Bayern Munich in the Olympic Stadium in Munich before going down to the Jurgen Klinnsmann-inspired hosts.
But the fact remains you don’t need to be that good simply to reach a Cup Final.
Hibs have been there the last two years and both times have been decidedly second best on the big day. Hearts hammered them 5-1 in 2012, and back in May Celtic were very comfortable for their 3-0 win.
As we have witnessed, Hibs progression through to the Europa League did no-one any favours.
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