The biggest problem with Scottish Football is the total lack of competition in the league and the gravitation of all cash, fans and sponsorship to Rantic. I'm not sure we would ever slip to the level of Irish or Welsh leagues tbh given the history and size of supports of the biggest clubs, even if we somehow managed to get rid of the OF I wouldn't expect a significant drop in crowds as they no longer boost home attendances anywhere they go.
If you are talking about us being at the same level as the Irish League in terms of Europe it could be argued we are there already. If you took out rangers and celtic's coefficient points over the last 10-15years where would we rank? I can't think of anyone outside us for one season and Hearts for one season who got anywhere in Europe in that time. If our ranking really reflected the collective attempts of Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs, United and assorted cup runners-up in the last 10yrs I'd hate to see where we'd be ranked.
But to be honest Europe is all well and good but I would much prefer a decent competitive Scottish League, which I suspect would result in improved European performance over time. Europe if anything has exacerbated the problems of our league with the OF getting sums of money not even dreamt of by other clubs. Thus the gap has grown further and further with a demoralising effect on the rest of the league and an even more arrogant and expectant attitude at Ibrox and Parkhead.
Someone elsewhere commented on how the Irish (and probably Welsh) leagues suffer as 1000s cross the border/sea every week to watch English clubs rather than their own. There is already an element of that up here which given the number of EPL shirts on kids is only likely to increase. The Scottish clubs need to work out how to get the excitement, crowds and most importantly the kids back into our stadiums. A decent competitive league would be a start.
How you achieve that is another matter