Who awaits Hearts, Hibs and Motherwell in Euro draws?
· Yahoo Sports
The World Cup has barely started and three of Scotland's five representatives are already having to set their sights on next season's early rounds of European qualifying.
Hearts, Hibernian and Motherwell are all involved in Wednesday's draws for the Champions League and Conference League.
Visit somethingsdifferent.biz for more information.
Rangers do not enter until the third round of Europa League qualifying but will be keeping an eye on their potential opponents too.
So who could the other three face when the draw for the Champions League is made at 11:00 BST and the Conference League two hours later in Nyon?
- Would Hearts' McInnes be 'perfect fit' for Rangers?
- Just's rise from Austrian second tier to World Cup breakout star
Hearts face Fenerbahce or Sturm Graz
As Scottish Premiership runners-up, Hearts will be playing in the Champions League qualifiers for the first time in 20 years.
Back then, they defeated Bosnia-Herzegovina's Siroki Brijeg in the second qualifying round before losing to AEK Athens and dropping into the Uefa Cup.
Hearts will enter at the same stage again and already know they will be facing one of two seeded opponents - either Fenerbahce of Turkey or Sturm Graz of Austria - in the League Path of the draw reserved for domestic runners-up.
The first leg of those ties will on 21/22 July, with the reverse fixtures the following midweek.
By that time they will likely be under new management, with head coach Derek McInnes seemingly poised to switch to Rangers.
Should they be drawn against Fenerbahce and win, Hearts will be seeded in the third qualifying round and will face either Czech Republic's Sparta Prague, NEC Nijmegen of the Netherlands, the winner between Sturm Graz and Poland's Gornik Zabrze - or Union Saint-Gilloise of Belgium.
The latter scenario would pit two of the other clubs in which Brighton & Hove Albion owner Tony Bloom has invested against one another.
However, while all three clubs use Bloom's Jamestown Analytics firm for recruitment, the gambling tycoon has kept his investment in both Hearts and Union below 30% to make sure they comply with Uefa's multi-club ownership rules.
Should Hearts be drawn against Sturm Graz and win, they will be unseeded and face either Lyon, Bodo/Glimt, Olympiacos or the winner of Fenerbahce against Gornik.
Lose at the first hurdle and the Edinburgh side will drop into the Europa League third qualifying round.
There, they would be unseeded in the same part of the draw as Rangers, who will be seeded for their first European fixture of the season.
However, there are a lot of ifs and buts before that draw on 20 July.
Hibs & Motherwell face greater uncertainty
Ajax could face Motherwell after beating Utrecht in their country's Conference League play-off final [Getty Images]Talking of ifs and buts, the Conference League's second qualifying round draw is full of them.
Despite finishing fifth behind Motherwell in the Premiership last season, Hibs find themselves seeded while the Fir Park side are not.
Among those the Leith side could face on 23 and 30 July are Swedish duo GAIS and IFK Gothenburg, Israeli outfits Beitar Jerusalem and Hapoel Tel Aviv, Valur of Iceland, Northern Ireland's Coleraine and Shelbourne of Ireland.
Motherwell's many potential opponents are a step up and include Ajax, Braga, Copenhagen, Gent, Rapid Vienna, Panathinaikos, Ludogorets Razgrad, FCSB, Partizan, AEK Larnaca, Rijeka, Cluj, HJK Helsinki, Brann and Nordsjælland.
All will become slightly clearer early on Wednesday, when Uefa will split the teams into groups of six and Hibs and Motherwell will know their five potential opponents.
Well go into the draw still considering who to appoint as manager after Jens Berthal Askou was poached by Toulouse after a successful season at Fir Park.
Whoever succeeds the Dane will be hoping to avoid the ignominy of their last Conference League venture, when they were knocked out at the same stage by Republic of Ireland's Sligo Rovers four years ago.
Hibs head coach David Gray will, meanwhile, hope he can take his side one step further than last season, when they lost narrowly to Midtjylland in Europa League qualifying, beat Partizan in Conference League qualifying but then were defeated by Legia Warsaw in the play-off round.