Rangers are the sixth most successful team in Europe in terms of UEFA coefficient points over the last five seasons and Scotland’s biggest contributor by a sizeable margin.
The Gers have enjoyed a resurgent half decade on the European stage with only Man City, Ajax, Bayern Munich, Dinamo and PSG having earned more than the Ibrox club’s 18.13 points.
This comes after that monumental run to the Europa League Final and the club’s first Champions League qualification in over a decade.
The total is also around 50% of Scotland’s total, with Old Firm rivals Celtic earning around a third less and 12.1 points, meaning, as we already knew, that Rangers are flying the Scottish flag on the continent.
The success of Rangers has helped the Scottish game to an automatic Champions League qualification spot, whilst five sides will get the chance to qualify across all three competitions.
But any notion that Rangers have earned some bragging rights for their European success, or that it’s news that should be celebrate, has been quashed by the club’s domestic downturn.
Rangers UEFA coefficient is nothing to brag about
Rangers lost any bragging rights over their UEFA coefficient the moment they bottled last season’s league title and wrote Celtic a Champions League cheque which they’ll be cashing once again in the summer.
The Gers will have to navigate a tricky set of Champions League qualifiers to make the competition next season, no mean feat and perhaps an understated success story of Gio’s tenure.
Rangers might’ve fluffed their lines in the Champions League group stages, ending as technically the competition’s worst-ever side, but the fact we got there was a success story in of itself.
Now with a sizeable summer of investment expected, the club will need to cut that financial gap with Celtic somehow and given they’re about to earn the spoils of war once again we’ve got it all to do.
For all our success of the last few seasons, mismanagement of the club’s transfer budget and squad sees us some distance behind our Old Firm rivals and the Ibrox support a little disillusioned with how that changes.