Big change to next season’s European cup competitions as Uefa decides to scrap away-goals rule

Uefa has scrapped away goals from all European cup competitions next season.

The governing body has decided on the rule just two weeks before the first qualifying matches for the top competition kick off.

It means all goals scored by Celtic in Denmark during their Champions League qualifier against FC Midtjylland next month will count the same as those scored at Celtic Park, and vice versa.

Instead of away goals counting for extra in the event of a two-legged tie on aggregate, second legs will have extratime added if the scores are level. If required, a penalty shoot-out will follow.

The rule comes into effect immediately and will also affect Aberdeen and Hibs in the new Europa Conference competition, Scottish Cup winners’ St Johnstone in the Europa League qualifiers and Rangers, who enter the Champions League in the third qualifying round.

It’s a significant change to European competition rules, which has always seen a goal away from home valued more.

Rangers benefitted from the rule twice in recent years – defeating Sporting Lisbon in the 2010-11 Europa League knock-out stages. It also helped Walter Smith’s side see off Panathinaikos with a Nacho Novo goal in Greece to start the Uefa Cup final run in 2008.

Likewise Martin O’neill’s Celtic side’s march to the 2003 Uefa Cup final in Seville was also aided by the rule to see off Celta Vigo. Away goals also came into force when Celtic drew with Legia Warsaw over two legs in 2014-15 and progressed to the Champions League play-off stage.

However, it has conspired against Scottish teams too and Alex Mcleish’s Rangers side were denied further progress in the Champions League after successfully qualifying from the group stage for the first time in 2005-06. A 2-2 draw at Ibrox with Villarreal and only managing to score once in El Madrigal in the return leg draw.

Uefa said: “Statistics since the mid-1970s show a clear trend of continuous reduction in the gap between the number of home-away wins (from 61 per cent-19 per cent to 47 per cent-30 per cent) and the average number of goals per match scored at home-away (from 2.02-0.95 to 1.58-1.15) in men’s competitions.”