Heart of Midlothian in Europe - 2026/27
All the detail for Hearts in Europe next season
With the Scottish Premiership now concluded, all but one of our European entrants have been confirmed. The last remaining position will be taken by either Dunfermline Athletic or Hibernian.
A Dunfermline win in the Scottish Cup final next Saturday afternoon woud earn them Scotland’s 3rd European entry point - the third qualifying round of the Europa League. A Celtic victory would hand that entry point to Rangers, and also reward Hibs with Scotland’s fifth European spot.
If Dunfermline win the Scottish Cup then Hibs don’t enter Europe and Rangers enter in Conference League qualifiers.
There are so many permutations for our clubs in Europe this summer. Scotland could end up with as many as four clubs in the Conference League phase at the same time. It’s unlikely, but we could also have two in the Champions league. Three in the Europa League is also possible, and arguably the optimum outcome from a coefficient-points perspective.
The longest article ever written for the website was published last week; “The UEFA qualifiers” covers all the details for all Scottish teams.
The current article is the first of five this week, containing all the information you could possibly want for the Premiership runners-up, Hearts, covering:
Entry point and overall route through qualifiers
Potential opponents lying in wait in the qualifiers
‘Best’ and ‘worst’ routes through qualifiers
Minimum earnings in each competition
Potential league phase opponents
Next summer’s much worse entry points
Entry Point
By securing a top two finish, Hearts will return to Champions League qualifiers for the first time since the 2006/07 season, when they finished second ahead of Rangers in 2005/06. Back then, Hearts defeated Široki Brijeg of Bosnia thanks to a thumping 3-0 home win at Murrayfield in front of 28,000 fans, before a 5-1 aggregate hammering at the hands of AEK Athens. Their European campaign was then ended that year at the hands of Sparta Prague in the first round of the UEFA Cup.
UEFA typically doesn’t allow Champions League branding in the stadium, or the official anthem to be played, until the final play-off round, so we are only guaranteed to see and hear this at Tynecastle if the Jambos win two Champions League qualifying rounds. Rangers managed this last season under Russell Martin, beating Panathinaikos and Viktoria Plzen before suffering a doing at the hands of Belgian runners-up Club Brugge.
The Champions League anthem was written in 1992, based on “Zadok the Priest” which was the anthem written for the coronation of George II in 1727. Its lyrics feature UEFA’s three official languages; English, French and German.
“Ils sont les meilleurs
Sie sind die Besten
These are the champions
Die Meister
Die Besten
Les grandes équipes
The champions”
No Scottish team outside Rangers and Celtic has ever reached a league phase/group stage of European competition by winning three qualifying ties, and so it will be a huge ask for Hearts to reach the Champions League. However, such are the nuances of UEFA’s competitions, Hearts might still be able to enjoy their best European campaign since 1989 by only winning one tie.
Hearts’ Route Through Qualifiers
By finishing second, although they are guaranteed Champions League qualifiers, there still remain four possible final outcomes - including total European elimination - and several routes through each of the competitions.
The important thing for Hearts is if they win any tie, in any competition, it will ultimately result in league phase football. Total elimination is only possible if they lose three consecutive ties.
For example:
if Hearts win Champions League QR2 - they are guaranteed at least Europa League phase football
because the losers in UCL QR3 in the main path drop straight into the Europa League phase.
If Hearts instead lose UCL QR2, but then win Europa League QR3 - they are guaranteed at least Conference League phase football
because the losers in the Europa league play-off drop straight into the Conference League phase.
Hearts’ Potential Opponents
After missing out on the title on the final day of the season Hearts now enter in the “league path” of qualifiers, in QR2. Unlike the Champions Path, there are significantly fewer potential opponents, so we are able to say with more certainty who Hearts’ potential opponents could be in QR2, and their likely opponents in the two subsequent rounds.
But first, an explainer on Europa league ‘rebalancing’ which could have a direct impact on Hearts.
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