Mike Slater

Fri 20 May 2022 7:10, UK

Michael Stewart has insisted that Rangers have been hit by a “massive” blow to their finances after losing to Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League final.

The Bears will have automatically qualified for the Champions League with victory, but will instead have to go through the dreaded qualification stage again.

Stewart admitted that the Scottish Cup final against Hearts on Saturday is now “huge” and will be one last chance to get their hands on some silverware.

Writing on his personal Twitter account on Wednesday evening [18 May], Stewart feared for what is to come next for the Bears at Ibrox moving forward.

“Winning Scottish Cup for Rangers or Hearts will be huge,” he wrote.

“It’ll round off a great season for Hearts with European group football already guaranteed.

“For Rangers, it means they won’t finish empty-handed, although missing the Champions League money is a MASSIVE blow to their finances.”

Massive.

Everyone attached to the club knew that qualifying for the Champions League by winning the Europa League could have been worth up to £100million altogether from this season.

That would blow Celtic and their achievements out of the ground, but instead, we will start from square one next season at the beginning of the campaign.

On top of that, the likes of Connor Goldson will surely be packing their bags for another club and bids may come in for Ryan Kent, Alfredo Morelos and Joe Aribo.

That could cover the losses of the Champions League, but we can still qualify for the group stages and bring in that windfall to cover this “massive” blow.

All eyes are now on Saturday, and lifting the Scottish Cup at Hampden Park would be a good end, but a taste of what could have been for Giovanni van Bronckhorst.

We are certainly moving in the right direction, let’s just hope we have these potential financial losses covered.

In other Rangers news, One 25-year-old could now be deemed as surplus to requirements at Ibrox this season