Football finance expert Keiran Maguire has claimed Rangers could be largely self-sufficient by the end of next season – if they qualify for the Champions League.
The reputable football finance expert – who runs the Price of Football account on Twitter – was discussing Rangers’ latest accounts with popular Rangers fan media This Is Ibrox.
Rangers posted an operating loss of around £15.9m for the financial year up to June, a £4.3m increase on last year’s losses [Rangers].
With those accounts forecasting that the club would require further £8.8m of funding by the end of this season and £23.2m in total by the end of the next campaign, naturally plenty of “financial experts” turned Celtic bloggers have jumped on the bandwagon.
But an actual football finance expert, in the shape of Kieran Maguire, has claimed Rangers’ losses are encouraging in this period and will be the envy of clubs down south.
With the likes of Tottenham Hotspur posting losses of £63.9m this season amid the Covid-19 pandemic [Sport Business], this comes as no surprise.
Maguire also believes that whilst Rangers can’t be bankrolled by their cash-rich investors forever, there’s a clear plan here which really begins when the club reach the holy grail of the Champions League.
“Clearly the losses are not something you want forever,” said Maguire.
“But if you look at some of the clubs south of the border, they would be more than happy for a loss of that magnitude.
“If Rangers want to progress, and I think progression means winning the Premiership, qualifying for the Champions League, getting into the group stages there, then they need to invest in talent.
“Talent comes in the form of the management team and the playing team.
“If you qualify for the group stages of the Champions League you’re effectively looking at £30m coming in.
“If you take a look at Rangers’ figures for 2020, they had £13m coming in from their European adventures and the domestic cups and leagues.
“So qualifying for the Champions League you’ve got a major income benefit and once you’ve got that once that gives the management team the resources to continue to invest in the squad and it becomes a virtuous circle.
“So I suspect that is the goal of the investors and once that happens that should allow them the ability to say ‘right, well we’ve put in our seed capital and that seed capital has helped the club to grow, and now to a large extent it’s self-sufficient.
“Clearly we can’t ignore the impact of Covid-19, but assuming we’ve had success in terms of the vaccine, success for Rangers in 2021/22 I think they could then be effectively able to wash their face in that they would no longer need external funding from the board or third-party investors.”
Kieran Maguire also broke news of a combined £13m fresh investment into Rangers over the last few months through a range of share issues.
The Ibrox club’s fans have also lauded the current Rangers board for their leadership and investment in trying to return the club to former glories.
