FK Jablonec's route into the UEFA Conference League began with a place they were not originally due to have after Czech Cup winners MFK Karvina were expelled from European competition over a match-fixing case.
The Czech side completed a remarkable journey on Thursday night by knocking Derek McInnes's Rangers out of the Conference League, winning 1-0 in the second leg before prevailing 4-3 on penalties after the tie finished 1-1 on aggregate.
But without events elsewhere in Czech football earlier this summer, Jablonec would not have been in the competition in the first place.
How Jablonec qualified for Europe despite low finish
Jablonec finished fifth in the Czech First League last season and initially missed out on European qualification.
Instead, the club's route to Europe was opened up by the disciplinary case involving Karvina.
Karvina had won the Czech Cup, defeating Jablonec 3-1 in the final, which earned them a place in the Europa League play-off round. However, the Football Association of Czechia’s Ethics Committee subsequently expelled the cup winners from the top flight and fined the club 10 million Czech koruna over attempts to influence matches.
The case involved three matches, including a first-league fixture against Ceske Budejovice and a play-off against Vyskov in 2024. Karvina representative and mayor Jan Wolf was also handed a 12-year ban from football and fined three million koruna.
The Czech FA's decision was not initially final, but UEFA later ruled that Karvina were ineligible to participate in the 2026/27 Europa League, citing the club's involvement in activity aimed at arranging or influencing the outcome of domestic matches.
That decision triggered a reshuffle of the Czech European places.
Czechia reshuffle
Viktoria Plzen took Karvina's Europa League play-off position, while Hradec Kralove moved into Plzen's former Europa League qualifying place.
That, in turn, freed up Hradec's Conference League second qualifying-round place for Jablonec.
UEFA officially confirmed the chain reaction on July 2, meaning Jablonec entered the Conference League at the second qualifying round despite originally finishing fifth in the Czech league.
Their European adventure subsequently took them through qualifying and, eventually, into a showdown with Rangers.
Rangers exit Europe
Jablonec arrived at the tie having been handed an unexpected opportunity to play European football.
They took advantage of it.
After Rangers won the first leg 1-0 at Ibrox, Jablonec levelled the tie in the Czech Republic through Vakhtang Tchanturishvili before surviving extra time and winning the penalty shootout 4-3.
The victory secured Jablonec a place in the Conference League league phase, completing one of the more unusual routes into European football.
UEFA's confirmed 2026/27 league-phase line-up lists Jablonec among the 36 clubs competing in the competition.
For Rangers, meanwhile, the defeat means European football is over before the end of August for the first time since the 2017/18 campaign.
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