ekwellfan

Thanks to all who are keeping a look out for my brother. It’s now over 3 weeks since he has gone missing and we need a confirmed sighting to try and find him. If anyone sees him or his car please contact the police on the 999 number.

Sun reporting deal is dead. Celtic have done walking away.

Here's a possible scenario that i don't think has been though over by the SFA / SPFL regarding next years competition The Date for the Cup final has been decided as 30th May 2015 Should the Premiership champions reach the cup final and win( for arguments sake say Celtic as champions play Motherwell) Then unless Motherwell finish 2nd or 3rd in the league the first tie in the Europa league would be on the first Thursday in July giving a close season of approximately 4 and a half weeks. This would be true of any club losing to the premiership champions I understand the season kicks off 1 week later due to the Commonwealth games and the cup final cannot be on on the 23rd of May due to the champions league final but surely there are alternatives. 1) Play an extra midweek game with the season finishing 1 week earlier and play the cup final on 16th May or 2) Keep the season as it is and play cup final on Sunday 24th May This scenario is not at all unlikely and would certainly disadvantage our representative in the Europa league. I believe the Scottish national ranking is unchanged from last year at 23rd in UEFA rankings so our teams would have to compete at the same stages as this year. Thoughts?

Here are the list of Aberdeens possible 1st round opponenets in their draw just to build up the interest Like 7 Dundalk FC (IRL) 8 Stjarnan (ISL) 9 Crusaders FC (NIR) 10 Tartu FC Santos (EST) 11 ÍF Fuglafjørdur (FRO) 12 FK Daugava Rīga (LVA) Whoever Aberdeen draw will then be excluded from our possible opponents in round 2

Just had a chance to look at Bert Kassies web site. Aberdeen seeded in round 1 unseeded in round 2 Motherwell seeded round 2 highly unlikely to be seeded round 3 ( 58 teams therefore 29 seeded, already 27 teams in round 3 will have a ranking higher than ours and another 13 possibly above us. As the draw for round 3 is before round 2 is complete only 2-4 teams ranked higher than us could be knocked out in round 1 making us ranked around 38-40 in round 3 i suspect) Dundee united would also be seeded in round 2 if they qualify but it is most likely that St johnstone would be unseeded. The irony is that should Aberdeen or st Johnstone knock out a seed in round 2 then they may take a seeded place in round 3 as a replacement as happened when St Johnstone put out Rosenberg last year. As the 4th round draw is after the 3rd round is completed no benefit in kind for us anbd we will have to put out 2 seeded teams to make the playoffs. Still the picture changes every day at this stage and its fun to guess the ins and outs can't wait for the Draw on June 23rd

Would not like to get that Kazakstan team though. Looked at them when we were in Round 1 when we qualified through the Fair platy and they are about as far east as you can get in Kazakstan. They are about 50 miles from the Chinese border!! Don't panic though as they are playing some lot from Bosnia in Round two so will be in the non seeds with us in round 3

See Levski Sofia Have been Knocked out by the Kazakstan side irtysh pavlodar and Videoton have been knocked out by Mladost Podgorica of Montenegro on away goals. This moves us up to the 7th ranked non seeded team in round 3 and moves Hajduk Split of Croatia and Red Star Belgrade of Serbia into the seeded sides as possible opposition. With the other teams in round 1 above our ranking likely to go through after their first leg results that is likely to be our final position as the draw takes place before the completion of Round 2

oops sorry the table didn'y format right and I didn't check when I was in a hurry So basically i make the seeded pots (not much different to scoojy) Pot 1 Stuttgart, Lech Poznan, Trabonspor, Macaibi Haifa, Rapid Wien Pot 2 Rubin Kazan, St Etienne, AA Aalborg, Fc Utrecht , Metalurgs Donetsk, DVSC Debrechen Pot 3 Seville,Sparta Praha, Anorthosis Famagusta,Bursaspor, Levski Sofia, Vitesse Arnhem Pot 4 Standard Liege, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Rosenborg, MSK Zilina,Estoril Chernomerets Pot 5 Udinese, Brugge, FC Zurich, Swansea, Sturm Graz, Omonia Nicosia If these are indeed how the seeds work out then my preference would be one of the non seeds in pot 5. With both Hibs and St Johnstone beinfg represented in the third round as an Either or tie then we could be prevented from being a non seed in any pot that could conceivably gives us a chance of drawing them eg if hibs draw AAb Aaalburg in round 2 then we could not be a non seed in pot 2 for round 3. I know that there are a lot of variables but its great fun to guess and keeps the excitement up until the actual draw next month

Ok here goes. As far as is made out UEFA try to do a pattern to match the seeds and the non seeds in each round to allow each group to be formed. This is complicated by the fact that the the third round is drawn before the 2nd round is completed and there can be numerous 'swaps' to avoid any chance of 2 teams from the same country being drawn together or two teams from the same country being in the same group. Basic principles for each round are the teams form a snake-like pattern to place the teams in each group and then any teams who may be drawn against a team from the same country are swapped along the same row with a team of similar ability to prevent this . So in round 3 the pattern is: 1. 2. 3. 4. 510 9. 8. 7. 611 12 13 14 1520 19 18 17 1621 22 23 24 25 29 28 27 26 30 31 32 3338 37 36 35 3439 40 41 42 4348 47 46 45 4449 50 51 52 5358 57 56 55 54 Motherwell would be team number 40 which would mean we would be team 8 on section 2 of the draw. This would mean our seeded teams would be Rubin Kazan, St Etienne, Aalborg, Fc Utrecht, Metalurg Donetsk and Dvsc Dubrechen. Now this is just hypothetical as already there is aproblem in round 2 as hibs are team 48 and St johnstone are team 64 which would put both Scottish teams in pot 1 using this method and one would need to swap. However it is a starting point and I suspect the seeds would change very little with the non seeded teams being swapped around Its a bitnof aguessing game but i will put my predictions of the seeded pots when i have more time.

Tonight the final teams will be known after the final round of the Greek playoffs. Once we know exactly which number we will be in the seeding order i will try and make a guess at possible draw groups. However due to the requirement of avoiding the possibility of any club drawing another of the same country there are unknown UEFA 'swaps' which cannot be predicted. With 58 teams in the 3rd round draw there will be one group of 10 and 4 groups of 12 . There will be the 3 scottish teams who will have to be in 3 seperate groups for the draw process and this will be repeated with all countries with multiple representatives. This makes the 3rd round very much a lottery of either or but it should be slighty easier to predict round 2 possibilities for Hibs and St Johnstone. It may end up total nonsense but Uefa do have a baseline strategy for predicting the groups for each draw and i will give it a go later.

Agree 100%

News Just in :: FromBBC 1357: FOOTBALLMK Dons manager Karl Robinson is set to remain with the League One side after ruling himself out of the running for the Sheffield United vacancy. BBC Radio Sheffield understands he has chosen to honour his MK contract, which has 18 months remaining. only McCall and Southgate left I reckon

Although our team co-efficient has increased year on year our national co-efficient has decreased and other countries and teams are now above us as their co-efficient has increased by more Current we are ranked 198th in European football with a co-efficient of 7.038 this means that 197 teams are higher ranked and will be seeded above us. As a lot of these teams qualify annually and start in earlier rounds therefore winning their ties and increasing their co-efficient they leapfrog us and will be seeded before us. We really need to win a tie again which will generally add about 0.25 to your co-efficient for subsequent years Also in the last few years we have had 5 qualifiers all getting pumped out early apart from Celtic and the old Rangers. Now we are down to 4 the co-efficient added will increase by 20% to each team in europe this year giving a bigger boost to each team qualifying this year. Bet you're glad you asked now Motherwell89

Sorry HanoMaSano Draw for Round 1 and 2 on 24th June with ties on 18th and 25th July Draw for Round 3 on 19th July so seeding from round 2 IS carried over as Round 2 will not be completed before draw so seeding level will be highest seeded team. Only hope would be that the 3 high seeded teams in round 1 get knocked out or the team we get drawn against is an either or with the seed being knocked out. 3 round 1 teams ranked higher than us (need all to be knocked out by minnows) 15 round 2 teams already ranked higher than us with possibly 7 more 13 Round 3 teams already ranked higher with possibly 2 more. With that scenario we are already 29th out of 58 and need none of the 9 unknown teams to be ranked higher than us . Therefore we will be Unseeded

After tonights European league matches the picture has become a bit clearer regarding seedings in round 2 & 3 of the europa league. If we are in round 2 we will be somewhere between ranking 17 and 27 of the teams in that draw making us comfortably one of the top 40 seeds In round 3 there are at least 29 teams ranked ahead of us already which confirms we would be a non seeded team It is difficult to predict possible opponents in round 2 as both round 1 and round 2 are drawn together on 24th of june. Dates however are the 18th and 25th of July However seeded teams already qualified for round 3 are Udinese, Bruge, Swansea, Bursaspor, Metalurg Donetsk. In Germany the same situation arises as our own cup final . If Bayern win the German cup then Stuttgart are in round 3 if stuttgart win it will be Eintracht Frankfurt as possible opponents. In Spain it will be whoever finishes 7th in the league one of Malaga, Real Betis or Rayo VallecanoI. In Portugal if Benfica win the cup it will be Vitoria Guimaraes if not it will be Estoril In France it is likely to be St Etienne although it could conceivably be Lille or Nice The draw for round 3 is on July 19th with games on August the 1st and 8th By sunday evening we will know which round we will be in and more of the leagues will be completed. Tune in for next weeks update.

Will be almost impossible to be seeded for third round as draw for Round 3 is before 2nd round is complete. Any non seeds Knocking out seeded opposition are given their seeding points for round 3. Unless we are one of the top 29 teams based on the seeding of the teams in round 2 we will be unseeded According to Bert Kassies there is only one team in Round 1 who have a better co-efficient than us. (Rosenberg) although there is a possibility of 5 others In Round 2 there are already 11 teams/countries who will have a better co-efficient than us and the possibility of 14 more this means in the worst case scenario if we are in Round 2 then there will be 31 teams ahead of us in the round of 80 making us a definite seed in round 2 (80 teams top 40 seeded) If we go into round 3 there are now only 58 teams therefore only 29 are seeded best case scenario 12 teams from round 1 &2 above us already 12 teams into round 3 above our co-efficient making us number 25 at the moment and with the possibility of 5 + 14 + 3 higher co-efficients from the previous rounds qualifying we require a maximum of 4 from that number to be seeded. This gives us around an 18% chance of being seeded if we go directly into round 3 at the moment. Things should be clearer after this weekend when many of the european leagues are completed

Here is something from Bert kassies forum posted yesterday ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Turkish FA sent five clubs names for UEFA Competitions, officially. UCL : Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe UEL : Trabzonspor, Besiktas, and Bursaspor UEFA sent an e-mail to Turkish FA yesterday and approved Galatasaray and Trabzonspor. Besiktas and Bursaspor were penalized by UEFA earlier for financial resons. Both clubs took the matter to CAS. Their case will be discussed and ruled on June 25th. Depending upon the outcome of the decision, Turkish participation will change. Three clubs waiting the decision are Eskisehir, Istanbul BB, Sivasspor in that order. For Turkish FA's actions during the bribery scandal most people were afraid that Turkey would have been banned from all club and national competitions. This e-mail proves that there will be no penalty to Turkey. Not approving Besiktas and Bursaspor may be because of the CAS case. Nothing was mentioned in the e-mail about Fenerbahçe. That may mean UEFA may ban Fenerbahçe this year again. We will wait and see what the outcome of the CAS cases and UEFA's decision on the bribery scandal will be. My predictions (I am usually wrong predicting on Turkish clubs): Bursaspor will win CAS case and Besiktas will lose. Fenerbahçe and Besiktas will be banned for the bribery scandal. So the Turkish participation may be shaped as: UCL : Gaqlatasaray, Trabzonspor UEL : Bursaspor, Eskisehir, Istanbul BB -------------------------------------------------------------------- If Fenerbahce are declined a licence then Trabzonspor ranking is 20.115 This will put them in the non seeds and FC Bruge will take the 4th seeded place.

Just hoping any accessible country and ground that doesn't involve too many planes trains and automobiles Flumentari comes to mind

Hate to disappoint you all but Bert Kassies excellent website shows that europa league round 4 was based on the UEFA co-efficients Fc Vaslui were knocked out in the 3rd round of the champions league non champions qualifiers and were non seeded in the play off round. They were drawn against seeded team Sparta Prague but did progress to the Group stages Linky thing http://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/index.html

I expect we will get St Johnstone at home again We were shafted last year when we finished in the 'wrong half ' of the table having finished in the bottom half the year before. This meant we travelled to Celtic for a third time. This year St Johnstone are in the wrong half and I expect them to be shafted and therefore travel to Fir park for a third time

1) whoever wins cup gets first europa cup place .They will enter in playoff round. If Celtic win cup they are in champions league and runner up ( Hibs or Aberdeen will get 3rd europa cup place) earliest entry lowest rank in qualifying round 2 2) Celtic in Champions league qualifying round 3 champions draw . Next eligible team in league qualifying round 3 non-champions draw. Next 2 eligible teams will be either 1st or 2nd Europa cup qualifier or 2nd and 3rd Europa cup qualifier if hearts St Mirren hibs or Aberdeen win cup 3) 1st Europa league qualifier is round 4, 2nd is round 3, and 3rd is Round 2 of qualifying competition It is now certain that a europa cup place will be won by the cup winner or Runner up unless Aberdeen somehow make it to the top 6 and the final Simples!

I am sure this game was a Monday night match for TV . I recall we played in a handful of Monday night matches and lost every one of them Football is for Saturday !!

Danny is actually a final year medical student who was attending for 6 weeks on an 'elective ' course where students do a short period in medical practice which interests them. He is a long term well fan and despite the video will continue to follow the mighty well!!

The draw means the ties will have to change> Strathclydes finest will not allow both of the old firm to play at home on the same evening so EITHER One tie will swap first leg venues and play home and away in reverse OR One tie will move to tuesday evening and play on both tuesdays to avoid clashes there is precedent when other clubs have been in the same city/country to avoid clashes. Scenario two would probably involve Rangers moving as their domestic fixtures would then remain the same The other complicating factor is Hearts glamour tie which could affect when the old firm would play at home.

Just a thought . As Rangers are now in the Europa league I expect our match will be moved to the Sunday as they play the 1st leg on 18th August That should screw up ESPN big style as the English Premier league will be started by then Try and make your plans flexible for that weekend