A further aspect that has barely been noticed by Rangers fans and probably Scottish football fans in general is that of Rangers Champions League prospects for next season. That is to say, the hype going back a few months centred around who or what would get that final automatic League phase Champions League spot in the tournament proper. Of course, Scotland had lost its automatic spot, but events have conspired to benefit Rangers, and it now appears very, very likely that the Scottish title winners, if it’s the Famous, will go straight into the Champions League.
How the Automatic Spot Works
How is this? Let Ibrox Noise explain. Put simply, there is one automatic spot left. It is going to the side with the highest coefficient. This is to do with country coefficient and the clubs that have earned them, seeing as the five year rule to do with country coefficient was changed to become club. The criteria is down to the individual club’s own merits and not the country’s own contribution towards the coefficient, because Scotland, of course, in recent years, the contribution as a whole has been absolutely abject, as UEFA explain.
Rangers’ European Coefficient Advantage
But Rangers’ European exploits have been super strong, even up until this season, because, of course, the Champions League qualifiers were big points. The qualification rounds were big points and Rangers got through two of them. Consequently, there is a lot of plot twisting going on here. But the point you”re here for is why and how are Scotland/Rangers going to get a potential automatic slot, which of course reverberates down to Rangers, something we covered before in this analysis.
The Greece Factor
Put simply, it is all down to Greece. Greece have one club that matters, Olympiacos. They are the one team with a score of a coefficient that is higher than Rangers, but it only matters if they win the Greek Super League. Alas for them, they are not in line to do so. They might, but they might not. They are also going down to a very tight title race. Their split has happened, but it is AEK Athens who lead the way. Consequently, it is entirely possible that Olympiacos will miss out on that Greek title, meaning that AEK Athens, who could win it, do not have anything like the coefficient points to take that final Champions League spot, as Sky Sports outline.
So who would be next in line? Rangers. We are unclear for certain if Hearts or Celtic would benefit from this if they were to win the title, but as far as our research has told us, it would be only if Rangers win the league that Olympiacos’s failure to win the Greek title matters for Scotland, something also referenced by BBC Sport.
Financial Impact and £60M Incentive
Consequently, there is every chance that Rangers, if we win the league, could actually make the Champions League proper. Whether we would have the quality to even remotely compete is another matter. But what does matter is the revenue. As we have spoken before, FFP is a huge deal here. Staying within the legislation to avoid sanctions and European participation is vital for revenue, vital for the club’s health, something we discussed further in this piece.
Rangers, of course, have not had good finance through Europe recently. Europa League early exit has meant that the revenue coming from those areas has not been there. While the 49ers ownership has funded big time the last few windows that cannot sustain on its own. Hence the share issue to allow revenue stream to help the fans fund some signings. More coverage available via our Champions League section.
Champions League Cash
But the big deal would be Rangers Champions League. That is where the real healthy cash is. If Rangers were to make the Champions League stage as it is now called? We are talking about a sum of around £60M right off the bat. That would manage to budget us hugely for the summer and could see a lot of change. We have explained the forensic financial breakdown of how Rangers would earn £60M from the Champions League off the bat. We show that here, but it is still a massive amount of cash that would be coming from an external source. And not from the pockets of the owners, which of course violates FFP.
So at the end of the day, it would be an outstanding result to win the league and for AEK Athens to do so likewise in Greece. What a turnaround that would be.