As the dust settles on Rangers’ iconic 6-4 aggregate victory over Borussia Dortmund, the club will also feel the benefit of increased Europa League prize money.
Rangers’ progress in Europe over the last four seasons has been a joy to behold not just for Ibrox supporters but for a Scottish footballing coefficient woefully let down by the other teams in the country.
This is now the third season in a row that Rangers have gone two rounds deep into European football’s second-tier competition and everyone involved deserves massive credit.
As a result of the Gers’ success, Scottish football will now likely have an automatic Champions League group stage place next season and the same could be true of the campaign after that.
But before the club can get to the £30m land of milk and honey that is the Champions League, Europa League football has provided a tidy fortune of sorts to help build us into a championship-winning squad.
Rangers in Europa League prize money boost after Dortmund victory
After victory over Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund – buoyed by an emphatic Ibrox crowd who made headlines across the globe – Rangers’ Europa League prize money for the season sits at £7.2m [Football Coefficient].
That’s roughly the same fee paid for Ryan Kent for example [the Times] and Rangers will be eyeing even more prize money ahead of the next clash with Red Star Belgrade.
Known as FK Crvena Zvezda in their home country of Serbia, Rangers will now host the Belgrade club at Ibrox on March 10th before heading into eastern Europe a week later.
If the Ibrox side can go one step further than previous campaigns into the quarter-finals – having come up short against Bayer Leverkusen and Slavia Prague at the Last 16 stage previously – then they’ll bank another €1.8m (£1.5m) [UEFA].
That would boost Rangers’ earning in the competition to £8.7m – before TV revenues – but before then the club has a tough clash against the Serbian side to take care of first.
Meanwhile, one Premier League boss has been making a startling Rangers admission after the Europa League draw was made.
