By Dan Plumley

5th Sep, 2023 | 7:10pm

Rangers need to re-align budgets after Champions League failure - Finance Expert

We’re delighted to welcome football finance expert Dr Daniel Plumley as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Rangers...

Dan Plumley has insisted that Rangers will need to re-align their budgets after missing out on the windfall that comes with Champions League qualification.

After crashing out of the final qualifying round with a heavy defeat to PSV Eindhoven, the Bears missed out on a guaranteed windfall of €20million [£17.1m].

The finance expert admitted that to be sustainable moving forward, consistent Champions League qualification is needed given the poor broadcasting and sponsorship deals in Scottish football.

“I think sustainable for Rangers to keep pushing forward, a lot of that depends on Champions League qualification,” he exclusively told Ibrox News.

“That’s because we know they’re going to be thereabouts in the leagues, the Scottish broadcasting deal is not as good as some of their counterparts around Europe, we know it’s not bringing in big sponsorships at league level.

“To differentiator for Rangers in that league is Champions League football, that’s what has pushed the revenue up over the last few years with the Europa League and then getting to the Champions League.

“It’s sustainable in the sense that you have to re-align your budgets if you’re not getting that money, and we know the Champions League is worth around €20m to Rangers for group stage participation, and you’re not getting that.

“If you continue to not get that, everything then has to fall in line with that.

“I wouldn’t say it’s sustainability at club level, it’s where you’re budgeting and where you’re pushing on in terms of direction for the future and how you start to diversify that income.”

In other Rangers news, Plumley has insisted that the club can argue they have missed out after a £900m+ deal was signed off elsewhere