OPINION
Rangers are set to bank around £14million from their Europa League campaign, when everything is added up.
Bill Young, from RockSportRadio, posted the figures on his personal Twitter page on Wednesday morning and while he said he can’t confirm the figures, he included a basic breakdown.
They’re set to bank around £4.6m from qualification and £8.7m from the group stage.
It’s important to note that this isn’t just money from UEFA. The Europa League doesn’t pay anywhere near as much as the Champions League.
It includes gate money and Rangers have such brilliant support that all their home games have been sellouts.
They played four games at Ibrox in the qualifiers and three in the group stage.
Figures sent to me this morning, can't confirm.
Rangers in Europe, money made: approx. £4,600,000 from qualification, approx. £8,735,000 million from groups (including ticket prices/gates) plus adverts, tv and so on: approximately 14 million through the Europa League campaign
— Bill Young (@BillYoungRadio) December 19, 2018
This goes to show just how important Europe is for Rangers. But it also shows how important it is to win the league and play in the Champions League.
That’s where the real money is and Celtic have had it their own way for too long. Rangers are top of the league at the moment and a brilliant December, including victory in the Old Firm derby on December 29, could make a second-half of the season title run a reality.
Celtic dominate in terms of finances at the moment – both in terms of fees and wages – but these figures show that Rangers are playing catch-up, and a win in the league could see the gap between the two clubs disintegrate.
In the meantime, a £14m windfall will do very nicely – fans will be hoping that some of it will be re-invested in the club this January.