Chasing fortune and glory is not necessarily a failing in football, but the Celtic fans who have become used to a diet of European football through the winter will be sick, especially when they recall Rangers' run to the UEFA Cup final last season. Even the most dedicated Celt must have had a tinge of jealousy even when decrying the competition last season, not least because the visit to Seville in 2003 became such an iconic landmark in their history.

This competition may be much maligned, but the memories for Rangers fans visiting Florence and Lisbon could have been mirrored by another trip to Milan or jaunt down to Istanbul for the Bhoys this season, if only they had held out for another four minutes in Denmark.

For all that the UEFA Cup has qualification rules that were probably dreamt up in Amsterdam after a particularly debauched night on the town by UEFA officials set free from their Swiss base for a weekend, AC Milan are taking it seriously enough. I was down at Portsmouth for their visit and unleashing the likes of Kaka, Shevchenko and Ronaldinho on the south coast side spoke volumes about how the Italian aristocrats are prioritising it.

Milan are primarily thinking of the silverware and may not be overly concerned about the relatively small financial rewards available for progressing in UEFA's 'B' tournament. For the likes of Celtic however, the TV monies would certainly not have been sniffed at.

The monetary gains are of course the real reason for the ridiculous entry rules. You can get into the UEFA Cup at various times via domestic cups, a mid-table finish in your domestic league, fair play and also for abject failure in the Champions League. The current group stage is a dog's breakfast with four matches, which do not include home and away against the same sides, before the top three from five progress. All this is simply to ensure maximum earnings are squeezed out of the fans and the TV companies; the problem is that with the competition's unnecessary complexity, its stock began to fall faster in the last few years than the stock market has in recent months.

Thankfully, next year will witness not only a rebranding, in the shape of the UEFA Europa League, but also a change in the overall format.

The first thing UEFA had to try to get rid of was the raft of meaningless games that litter the end of the group stage.

Even the Champions League has suffered from this fate. With one round of games still to be played most of the major clubs are through already. Indeed before these final games, all but three of the 16 qualifiers are known.

The new UEFA Cup, sorry, Europa format, does ape the Champions League to some extent, but the argument is that there is less disparity between those competing and as such the groups are far less likely to be wrapped up quite as quickly or indeed predictably.

It will still be a difficult trophy to win, with 48 teams divided into 12 groups, though happily this will involve the traditional home and away element once more. Well done UEFA. There will however still be teams parachuting out of the Champions League, while the new corporate logo, new official competition match ball and new heavily trailed presenting sponsor all underline where UEFA's true priorities lie. Even so it is an improvement on the current format.

The question remains, can Scottish clubs be successful under the new format? Rangers played 19 European games last year – that's an extra half season – but it came at a heavy cost and not only in the pockets of the loyal travelling fans. The squad was spread thinly as the season progressed and games were squeezed closer together just when injuries, suspensions and tiredness took hold. Most observers feel it cost the club a league title and maybe going forward this will continue to be the biggest barrier to Scottish clubs reaching the latter stages again as even last year's finalists consider reducing their squad size in a tough financial climate.

Even so it looks as though this competition could recover some of its kudos and as such hopefully some Scottish clubs will hang around long enough to enjoy a few more special European nights. Aberdeen fans will not forget Bayern Munich's visit for quite some time and Queen of the South supporters will forever be able to vividly remember, as well as correctly spell, Nordsjaelland. Even Motherwell fans in time may look back fondly at the excitement around the area before Nancy rolled into town. They, as well as the rest of our teams, will be desperate to sample it all again and no matter what the doom-mongers say I expect we will have a better season next time round.

In the meantime we can only watch with envy as Aalborg look forward to the possibility of matches against AC Milan, Schalke, Manchester City or Galatasaray. If you're a Celtic or Rangers fan you can't help thinking, it should have been us.