Rangers will never have a better chance of making it through the Champions League qualifiers when next season kicks off, our status as seeds, the potential draw and only having to play two rounds means that it is well within our grasp – that is if we don’t win the Europa League of course.
But there is another reason why the continent’s elite tournament shouldn’t phase us.
The excellent Swiss Ramble on twitter has provided a fascinating insight into the riches available to individual clubs this week and how each team gets different amounts depending on their ten-year coefficient ranking before a ball is even kicked, the sums available to this season’s finalists Liverpool and Real Madrid really is silly money, imagine £125million going in our bank account every season!
The main reason that #RealMadrid €128m is higher than #LFC €118m is the UEFA coefficient, where they receive €36m, compared to Liverpool’s €23m.
The Reds’ ranking will improve next season, as the 10-year coefficient will drop 2011/12 when they did not qualify for Europe. pic.twitter.com/XJoTzGRmGR
— Swiss Ramble (@SwissRamble) May 5, 2022
The devil is always in the detail though and on the ten-year coefficient table used to explain why the two European giants get different amounts we get a reminder of just how well we have done in recent seasons and why the top table shouldn’t hold any fears.
In the last three seasons we have played three of the top 15 teams in UEFA’s rankings and haven’t lost once.
With two wins and four draws against Porto in 2019, Benfica in 2020 and Borussia Dortmund this year we have shown exactly what we are capable of against top teams, these results would have looked even better but for gifting Benfica more than a couple of goals in games we really should have won – RB Leipzig have also recently been in the semi-finals of the Champions League and beaten Man City this season.
When you consider our results against other teams at a similar level to our own and ones that regularly make the Champions League group stages then going in to simply make up the numbers should be a mentality consigned to the past but, as always, we have to do the hard work and get there first.