WHAT has happened to Scottish football? Just this week, despite being a fortnight into their new domestic campaign, champions Rangers were already reduced to European also-rans.

The Gers crashed out to Sweden’s Malmo in the qualifying round of the Champions League meaning Scotland will not have a representative in Europe’s most lucrative, actually money-drenched, club competition for the 2011/12 campaign.

Besides the riches on offer now ripped unceremoniously from Rangers’ grasp – just appearing in the group stages can yield many millions – the exit deprives Scottish football of a healthy share of income from the Euro pot, valuable resources needed at a time when even the Ibrox outfit are struggling for finances, let alone Raith Rovers, Alloa or Cowdenbeath.

And as if to add insult to injury, the blue-clad ranks did not just depart from Europe’s principal tourney with a whimper they did so in snarling style finishing the second leg of their tie in Malmo down to nine men after two red cards notable for their crass pointlessness.

It does not augur well for the reign of new Rangers manager Ally McCoist, already faced with the arduous task of following in the footsteps of one of Scotland’s most dignified bosses, Walter Smith.

But why should we, in dear old parochial England, need bother our Sassenach heads about our contemporary footballing cousins from north of Hadrian’s Wall?

There’s the not so inconsiderable factor that Scotland now could be described as a microcosm of the current English game at its most elite.

For too many seasons to recall the higher Scottish strata has been dominated by two clubs, Rangers and their cross-Glasgow rivals Celtic.

On the pitch that has led to a lack of competition, a dearth of genuine rivalry with clubs such as Hearts, Dundee United and Aberdeen offering rare incursions on a consistently predictable two-horse race for honours.

As they have held command the Glasgow duo have attracted the most cash, while the better players eventually, almost inexorably, gravitate to Ibrox or Celtic Park.

Naturally television rights also orbit closer around the big two than the rest, so in true market-place reality the rich get richer and the poorer get screwed – again.

Apply that scenario to England and it sounds familiar doesn’t it?

Contrary to Scotland, there’s no denying how the English set-up is more conducive to greater world-wide coverage and investment.

The more recent owners of the top clubs are resource-driven businesses, though hardly home-grown, or Croesus-wealthy individual owners and dynasties launching their own over-the-moon projects.

Meanwhile, some of the deals negotiated on behalf of the Premier League over the last few seasons would enable potential bale-outs of struggling European nations such as Greece and Ireland.

The money difference between England and Scotland is astronomical.

But the absolute power is still concentrated within a small cabal of clubs and even that number is dwindling.

Where you had a big four of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, the majority of recent honours, bar the occasional League Cup lapse, is more regularly acquired by the first two of the aforementioned quartet.

The second two scramble for minor placings and their slots at the crumbs of the big table are now authentically menaced by Sir Alex Ferguson’s “noisy neighbours”, Manchester City.

As boredom sets in with the Premier League, and it will if the prizes remain in the clutches of one, two, or three clubs, then a new European League built on the success of the Champions League will appear.

That eventuality could weaken further the already parlous nature of Scottish football, which is a cruel irony given how so many celtic lions are currently roaring down south.

No fewer than six Premier League clubs are managed by Scots – Manchester United (Sir Alex Ferguson), Liverpool (Kenny Dalglish), Everton (David Moyes), Bolton (Owen Coyle), Aston Villa (Alex McLeish) and Norwich City (Paul Lambert).

Coincidentally three of them – Dalglish, Coyle and Moyes – played in England after initially starring in the homeland.

That was back when Scottish players still graced English football, which indeed they had ever since the inception of the Football League more than 120 years ago.

Having a Scots player in a top-flight English squad is now more of a phenomenon than a regularity.