UEFA have released the rewards for each of their now three competitions and it’s safe to say that qualifying for the Champions League means more than it ever did.
Rangers, for the first time in ten years, have a shot at the big time and will be hoping that the safety net of the Europa League – or Europa Conference League – isn’t needed to guarantee group stage football.
The ECL may feature some teams that have never been seen before at this level but with €15million on offer for the winner, we certainly shouldn’t be turning our noses up at it, if we suffer the misfortune of failing to qualify for either of the two established competitions.
It now represents a decent back-up for clubs like Rangers who would previously have suffered huge losses without continental football, it’s not on the same level but it’s the difference between selling your best or a good player to cover the difference.
However, this isn’t why we are here. Without anything else taken into consideration; winning games, selling match tickets for play-offs and qualifiers, TV revenue, getting into the group stages of the Champions League is worth more than €15m without a ball even being kicked if you get automatic entry.€15m boost for Gers .
The advantage that this would give Rangers over Celtic if we make it and they miss out would be huge. That there is nearly £2m for winning a single game compared to the £500k we were getting in the Europa League gives another idea of what is on offer.
Winning the Scottish Premiership title in 2021/22 guarantees access to the group stages of Europe’s elite competition which makes it one of the most important title races for years, yes, last season was emotionally one of the biggest, but this year is financially, the biggest there has ever been and could set the winner up for years to come – let’s go!