Preparations for Rangers assault on the Champions League have already begun with the addition of Fashion Sakala and a host of other top class targets being linked since the season ended.
Across the city, preparations aren’t going quite as smoothly and yet, they are already at a distinct advantage, despite finishing runners-up to the Champions of Scotland.
UEFA’s convoluted qualification system means that Celtic could automatically drop into the Europa League if they fail – again – to get into Europe’s elite competition, Rangers, however, do not have that luxury and will have to enter a play-off round to guarantee group stage football, something football finance expert, Kieran Maguire, claims could see a £50million gap in revenue, as reported by Football Insider:
“It’s absolute nonsense, therefore it must be something to do with Uefa. European participation is really essential for both clubs, ideally in the Champions League.
“If we take a lot of Rangers’ revenue in 2017-18, they didn’t get very far in European competition that year and their revenue was £32.7m.
“Whereas two years later it was £59m. If you’re in the Champions League group stages we’re probably talking somewhere closer to £80m.
“It’s a game-changer for both clubs, getting into the group stages. The value of the Scottish rights are quite modest, especially compared to the Uefa broadcast deal.
“Remember, both Rangers and Celtic benefit from the rights pool. The way that it works is that the more your domestic broadcaster pays for Uefa rights, the more you get as an individual team.”
It’s the same sort of nonsense that sees teams like West Ham United, with no recent European pedigree, get automatic entry into the group stages of the Europa League, unfortunately, Rangers still have a couple of years of not having any coefficient points still to drop off their record before we should see a noticeable difference in our seeding – if we can maintain our current continental form, group stage entry into the Champions League is just around the corner.