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Revealed: Rangers at risk of losing £16m as critical July date looms
Rangers could lose a maximum of £16.1million if they fail to make it through the Champions League qualification phase, Football Insider analysis shows.
The club’s emphatic 3-0 win over Celtic last Saturday (13 May) was their first match since they mathematically conceded the Scottish Premiership to their arch rivals the previous weekend.
With the champions going straight into next season’s Champions League proper, Rangers now know they must navigate two knockout rounds – the first of which is pencilled in for 24 July – to join them in the group stage
Group stage qualification would be worth a bare minimum of £20.8m to Michael Beale’s side, and that could be topped up by performance related-bonuses throughout the season.
That windfall would be comprised of a £13.8m participation fee as well as payments of circa £4m and £3m from Uefa’s coefficient and market pool pots.
But if Rangers lose in the first qualifying round – where they will face an as-yet undecided opponent from Belgium, Ukraine, Switzerland or Greece – they will drop into the Europa League play-off round.
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A defeat in that two-legged tie would see the Gers drop into the Europa Conference League for what would be their first season in the recently-formed competition.
Conference League participation would be worth a minimum of £4.7m to Rangers, according to a conservative analysis conducted by this site that takes into account variables in the club’s 10-year coefficient and market pool share.
That means that Rangers will know that an upper limit of £16.1m is on the line when they begin their European campaign at the Champions League qualification phase in 2023-24.
The Glasgow giants would meanwhile be guaranteed slightly more than £7m if they qualified for the Europa League group stage.
As with the Champions League, participation in either of the lower-tier Uefa competitions would come with performance-related bonuses throughout the campaign.
Matchday income is another revenue stream which is bolstered by appearing in Europe, while there are also significant commercial benefits.
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