Rangers fall behind in hunt to join new £4.2billion Champions League
Rangers winning the title would see them qualify for the new format of the Champions League where the competing clubs earn a combined £4.2billion a season, according to the Daily Record.
The newspaper reported on its website on Tuesday (5 September) that the winner of the Scottish Premiership will be part of UEFA’s new competition, where a league format has replaced the traditional group stage and teams will now play a minimum of eight matches.
With the Champions League in its current format, the minimum a team can earn from competing is £30m, but projections reckon that there will be an added 33% of income for the 36 teams that will compete, totalling £4.2 billion a season.
Like this year, there remains the opportunity to qualify even if the Gers don’t win the title, but with the riches and the chance for success much greater in the new format, the risk of missing out through a failed qualifying campaign only becomes greater.
Can’t miss out
The money that Champions League qualification earns teams already can make such a huge difference to sides, with an extra £30m coming into a club every year, teams can strengthen year after year to ensure they are more likely to sustain domestic and European success.
That is a blessing Celtic have earned far too often in recent years and one that Rangers can’t afford to gain when the stakes are even higher, otherwise the gap in Scottish football will continue to just get bigger and bigger.
Rangers needed the Champions League when it was only worth £30m, with the new changes and finances coming in from next season, they cannot miss out as they would be earning season-defining levels of money and have a genuine chance of competing in Europe.
The new league format will rule out campaigns like the Light Blues 2022/23 Champions League trip, where they were unable to pick up a point in their group, instead offering Rangers the chance to at least play eight games and be in with a genuine shot of making it past the league stage.
Michael Beale needs to ensure that his side is in with the best chance of making the competition next year, and Sunday’s (3 September) defeat to Celtic has given Brendan Rodgers’ side the advantage in that chase so far.
If the pressure to overthrow the Hoops’ dominance wasn’t already enough, the sort of money they’re competing for should only magnify the need for Rangers to get their act together.
In other Rangers news, one former Rangers player believes the clock is already ticking for Beale at Ibrox