Sport
Finance Expert: ‘Huge’ windfall incentive on line for Rangers
Dan Plumley has stated that Rangers’ chances of winning the Scottish Premiership this year would be “huge.”
Somehow, Philippe Clement’s team has moved into a position where they can pass Celtic before Tuesday’s match at Ibrox against Aberdeen.
With a guaranteed £17.1 million on the line, the football finance expert acknowledged that qualifying for the Champions League as the top-ranked team in Scotland is a tremendous incentive.
“It is huge financially, there is no question about that,” he exclusively told Ibrox News.
“It’s the differentiator in Scottish football, now it’s opened up a little bit more with top spot being a guaranteed group stage position and we know that based on the current distribution mechanisms in that competition, it’s worth about €20m [£17.1m] at least to Rangers or Celtic.
“That’s from participation fees and then your extra home matchdays and how you can leverage them and the commercial opportunities that go alongside that. If you can pick up a couple of wins in the group stages along the way, there are bonus payments for that as well so it can become really lucrative, and of course, the stage that puts you on in European football just opens up the market even further.
“Absolutely huge for either of those two clubs, as we say, at the minute it’s either one or the other, I think that’s fairly clear given the nature of Scottish football and if Rangers can get themselves into that position, the windfall from the Champions League is huge financially.”
Huge windfall at Ibrox.
Rangers have had to settle for Champions League qualifiers since the change was made in Scotland, but with the chance to go ahead of Celtic tonight, that could all change.
Philippe Clement has turned everything around at Ibrox, and the guaranteed £17.1million would be a huge help to John Bennett and the board.
Aberdeen won’t be an easy game, especially with new manager Neil Warnock coming in, but the Bears are expected to make light work of a struggling side to go top of the league.
