Fresh data published by a leading football financial analysis business has further highlighted how Rangers are highly disadvantaged by UEFA’s Champions League prize money distribution.
Just like last season, the Light Blues will head into the 2024/25 Champions League’s third qualifying round for finishing second in the Scottish Premiership.
It means they will have to navigate two ties totalling four games to then reach the promised land that is the group stage, which of course reaps huge financial benefits simply for taking part.
But even if Rangers do reach the group stage, recently published analysis from Off The Pitch exposes the majorly offset stratification of cash distributed in the Champions League between clubs from the so-called ‘Big Five’ leagues and the rest – including Gers.
And it all centres around two key components of UEFA’s financial distribution system – the 10-year coefficient pool and the TV market pool.
Champions League money distribution explained
The data from Off The Pitch looks at last season’s Champions League campaign to show how teams from England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France bank way more than what Celtic or Rangers would for group stage participation.
Given the Ibrox giants did not qualify for the Champions League group stage last season, Celtic can be used for the explanation below. But the same narrative would apply if Rangers had made it there too.
The report tells us that Celtic earned around £30.8m from the group stage in total. That includes the participation fee, performance-related bonuses and a small share of both the 10-year coefficient and TV market pools.
The Hoops finished bottom of their section, as did English giants Manchester United in a separate group. So you’d think the Red Devils would have earned a similar amount.
That’s absolutely not the case. United, in fact, will rake in nearly double the total finance Celtic will as per Off The Pitch’s latest projections.
As mentioned, this is mainly down to the 10-year coefficient pool which United benefit from way more than Celtic due to qualifying for the group stage more regularly.
The 10-year coefficient pool last season was worth 30% of the £1.7 billion total prize money pot for the Champions League.
It means overall, United benefitted from a near £30m head start over Celtic before a ball was even kicked in the group stage. The same would apply to Rangers had they made it to the group stage.
The TV market pool also plays into this benefit for the English clubs because teams from countries with bigger broadcasting deals are paid a larger share of that particular pot.
To sum up the astonishing gap between the ‘Big Five’ league clubs and teams such as Rangers and Celtic, a massive 70% of the total Champions League prize money is earned by the former.
How UEFA’s financial distribution impacts Rangers
So what does this data mean for Rangers going forward in the Champions League, which next season will see its new league format played out for the first time?
TBR Football’s finance expert Adam Williams has provided his analysis of the situation for Rangers News, explaining that even UEFA reduce the impact of the 10-year coefficient pool for the bigger European clubs from 2024/25 onwards, Rangers may still not reap the benefits.
He commented: “These figures are emblematic of UEFA’s approach to financial redistribution, which continues to fortify the positions of Europe’s already ultra-rich clubs.
“UEFA has signalled that it intends to reduce the impact of the 10-year coefficient pool in time for the new Champions League format’s introduction, but it has not said by how much.
“Given the direction of travel, it’s hard to believe that it will be by a margin that will benefit Rangers in any meaningful way in future years.
“Even with their run to the Europa League final in 2021-22 taken into account, Rangers are 66th in UEFA’s 10-year coefficient table.
“The long-term nature of the system means it would take years of sustained success in Europe for Rangers to climb the rankings and have a chance to bank the same prize money as elite English clubs.
“As it stands, the distribution system massively favours clubs from the ‘Big Five’ leagues and guarantees them what would be transformative cash to a club like Rangers before a ball is even kicked in any given European campaign.”
