Rangers may have to play TEN European games before the season breaks for the World Cup if they are to qualify for the group stage of the Champions League.
And it's not much better for Hearts who themselves will have to cram 27 matches in the four months before Qatar 2022 gets under way.
The winter World Cup means UEFA and the SPFL have had to drastically adjust their schedules to compensate for the month-long break.
Champions League, Europa League and Conference League matches have all been brought forward in order to get the group stage completed in time for November 21 - three weeks earlier than normal.
It means that teams playing at that stage will have even tighter schedules than usual.
That gets even more intense for the teams facing qualifiers before they even get there, and Rangers look set to bear the brunt.
It remains a distinct possibility that Rangers will win the Europa League and if they do so they will go straight through to the Champions League group stage.
But they are near certain to finish the league season as runners up to Celtic, so if they fall short in Europe, they would go into the Champions League second qualifying round.
That leaves them facing four games before the group stage gets underway on September 6.
Gio van Bronckhorst's team kick off with two legs on 19/20 and 26/27 July. If successful, they would move onto the playoff round - which takes place on August 2/3 and 9.
If they were to lose their second qualifying round clash, they would drop into the Europa League playoff - on August 18 and 25.
Should they lose that , they would drop into the Conference League proper - meaning no matter what, they will play six tournament games as well as four qualifiers.
Add those ten matches to the 17 Premiership rounds and two League Cup games they could face, and it's a maximum of 29 games for Rangers before the season breaks off.
Meanwhile Hearts face an equally condensed schedule. They go into the Europa League playoff as a reward for their third-placed finish, meaning their European journey begins on August 18.
They will already be two games into their league season by the time that starts meaning match fitness won't be an issue - a welcome and unfamiliar luxury for a Scottish club in Europe.
Similar to Rangers, they are guaranteed group stage football even if they lose with the Conference League a sufficient consolation prize.
And while the novelty of qualifying for a Euro tournament will take a while to wear off, the scheduling issues it creates will be felt by Robbie Neilson's squad.
While the qualifying rounds take place on separate schedules, the group stage of all three tournaments then sync up with Champions League games on Tuesday/Wednesday and Europa and Conference League games on Thursdays.
The Premier Sports Cup schedule has been designed not to clash with those dates with the second round taking place on 30/31 August and the quarter-finals on 18-20 October.
UEFA competitions schedule 2022/23
Matchweek 1 - W/B 5 September
Matchweek 2 - W/B 12 September
Matchweek 3 - W/B 3 October
Matchweek 4 - W/B 10 October
Matchweek 5 - W/B 24 October
Matchweek 6 - W/B 31 October
