Kieran Maguire: £80m Rangers gap could be accelerated by Saudi Arabia backing
The £80million gap between Rangers and Celtic to the rest of the SPFL could be accelerated if Saudi Arabia provides financial backing for the European Super League, according to Kieran Maguire.
Speaking to BBC Scotland on Saturday (23 December, via BBC Sport), the football finance expert said that he doesn’t think the gap would be as big if the teams aren’t going to be competing in the top tier of the competition.
But if the Old Firm are at the top table, then he believes there could be a “substantial increase” to the “already gargantuan differences” in funding in the Scottish game.
“I think a lot depends on who is going to be funding the Super League,” said Maguire. “If Saudi Arabia comes in via the Public Investment Fund and provides similar financial backing to what we have seen in the likes of LIV golf, then the current gap between Celtic and Rangers and the likes of Aberdeen – which is currently around £70million or £80million – would be accelerated.
“Having said that, if you are not going to be at the very top tier of the competition I do not think there would be as big a gap. All of the focus is likely to be on the 16 clubs who are at the top.
“If Celtic and Rangers are at that top table I think we could see a substantial increase to the already gargantuan differences in the funding in the Scottish game.”
Negative impact
It’s pretty clear that if Rangers and Celtic were to join the European Super League it would have an extremely negative impact on Scottish football.
The chances of any of the country’s other clubs playing in the competition are extremely limited, which would make it very unfair if the Old Firm were to back the recent plans.
The gap between the Glasgow sides and the rest of the SPFL is already massive, so it could potentially ruin the league if that were to get substantially bigger.
They have initially committed to continuing with the UEFA’s competitions over the past couple of days, but it looks as though the Super League organisers are intent on making sure it goes ahead.
But while competing well in Europe is important, the biggest priority for the Old Firm clubs will always be focused on the domestic competitions and it’s hard to see that not continuing long into the future.
In other Rangers news, a loan bid is set to be made to sign one Gers player in January.