After Rangers were knocked out of the Europa League by Slavia Prague at the Last 16 stage last week, we’ve taken a look at how much UEFA prize money the club may have earned this season.
The absence of fans at Ibrox for all matches ensured a number of significant revenue opportunities unavoidably slipped by.
However, the Gers’ impressive Europa League run was still a lucrative one.
There’s some uncertainty regarding the specific amounts paid out by UEFA at each stage of their club competitions this season, as no new figures have been published since The Times reported in October that there would be a minor reduction to prize pots over the next five years.
Yet, it is possible to roughly estimate how much Rangers banked.
Football Coefficient have given a figure for the Gers’ total 2020/21 prize money by plugging in the numbers provided by UEFA for the 2019/20 campaign [UEFA.com].
After picking up a substantial ten-year coefficient payment, progressing through three rounds of qualifiers, winning four times and drawing twice on their way to topping Group D and then defeating Royal Antwerp in the Round of 32, it’s asserted that Steven Gerrard’s side earned €10.24m or £8.8m.
If we work on the assumption that last year’s rewards have been cut by around 4%, as reported by The Times, that would leave the Gers with something in the region of €9.83m or £8.46m.
In a season where clubs around the world have been hit hard by the pandemic, that constitutes a major financial boost for Rangers and they’ve earned considerably more than rivals Celtic, who struggled badly once again in Europe.
There has been talk that Rangers may need to sell many of their best players in the summer in order to balance the books but Ross Wilson recently gave a more palatable update for supporters.
