Finance expert: Rangers failure sees Celtic net extra £2.5m
Celtic will net an extra £2.5million in UEFA payments due to Rangers failing to qualify for the Champions League, according to football finance expert Kieran Maguire.
The Gers lost 5-1 away at PSV last week to crash out of the competition 7-3 on aggregate in the qualifying play-off round.
Rangers will now play in the Europa League, whereas Celtic have been handed a route straight into the Champions League group stage as a result of winning the Scottish Premiership last season.
That has had a knock-on effect on both clubs’ finances, as outlined by Maguire on The Price of Football podcast [24m 39s].
“The way UEFA distributes money is they put it into a series of pots,” he said. “One of those pots is based on where you finish in the table, one is based on what UEFA refer to as their 10-year co-efficient, and so on.
“One of those pots is also linked to the amount of money the domestic broadcaster is prepared to pay for Champions League rights. In the case of the UK, we have TNT Sports who have the Premier League and SPFL clubs.
“That money would usually be split between the participating teams, or 60/40 based on who finishes first if you have two teams from the SPFL.
“With Celtic qualifying for the Champions League through right having won the [Scottish] league last season, and Rangers having to go through the qualification rounds, Rangers failing to get to the Champions League means that instead of Celtic getting 60% of the money, they’ll get 100% of it – that’s worth £2.5million.
“Celtic fans are always happy to see Rangers have a poor result, but they have been major beneficiaries of Rangers failing to advance into the ground stage of the CL.
“That is only going to increase the gap between the two clubs. In a league where you don’t expect anyone other than those two to win the league, it has significant benefits to Celtic.”
Insult to injury
If failing to qualify for the Champions League and losing to Celtic in the same week was not bad enough, Rangers have now learned they are losing out on a large sum of money to their fierce rivals.
Missing out on a place in UEFA’s showpiece competition was always going to be tough to take, and the Gers faithful will just be hoping Celtic do not advance any further than the group phase.
To put a positive spin on the disappointing PSV loss, Rangers still have some exciting fixtures to look forward to in the Europa League, a competition they came close to winning last year.
Having missed out on a fairly hefty payout that comes with advancing into the Champions League, the Gers now have to knuckle down and go on a deep run in the secondary competition.
Only then can they have the last laugh on Celtic.
In other Rangers news, an update has been provided on the future of full-back Borna Barisic.