The Scottish Cup winners earn a spot in the Europa League play-off round, with the team that finishes third in the Premiership going into the second qualifying round.
Whoever is fourth, will be in the equivalent stage of the Conference League.
However, if Celtic win the cup, everything shuffles down because they have already clinched a place in the Champions League qualifiers. Rangers will too.
That means the Europa play-off place – and the guaranteed six-game Conference League campaign that comes with it – goes to whoever finishes third in the league.
Currently, that’s Hibs. But United and Aberdeen and St Mirren – albeit the arithmetic is hugely against them – are still in the mix.
But even the clubs who miss out on third could still be rewarded.
Fourth place would be upgraded from Conference League to Europa League, with that Conference spot going to whoever finishes fifth.
St Johnstone, of course, could scupper all this with a second victory over Celtic inside a month.
Should they do so, then either they or Aberdeen could look forward to at least six lucrative games in the Conference League come the autumn.
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