Why UEFA’s financial distribution system gives English clubs a £30m head start over Rangers
New statistics supplied by a major sports financial analysis firm has revealed how Rangers are significantly disadvantaged by UEFA’s Champions League prize money distribution. Like last season, the Light Blues will enter the 2024/25 Champions League’s third qualifying round after placing second in the Scottish Premiership.
It means they’ll have to navigate two ties totaling four games before reaching the promised land of the group stage, where they’ll earn a lot of money just for participating. Even if Rangers make it to the group stage, recent Off The Pitch data reveals a significantly skewed stratification in cash distribution in the Champions League between clubs from the so-called ‘Big Five’ leagues and the others, including Gers. And it all revolves around two critical components of UEFA’s revenue distribution system: the 10-year coefficient pool and the TV market pool.
Champions League money distribution is described. Off The Pitch’s research examines last season’s Champions League campaign to demonstrate how teams from England, Spain, Germany, Italy, and France pay significantly more than Celtic or Rangers for group stage participation. Given that Celtic failed to qualify for the Champions League group stage previous season, they can be used to explain the following. However, if Rangers had also arrived, the story would have been the same.
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.
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 current trajectory, it’s difficult to assume that it will be by a margin that will assist Rangers in any significant way in the future. “Even after reaching the Europa League final in 2021-22, Rangers rank 66th in UEFA’s 10-year coefficient chart.
“Due to the system’s long-term structure, Rangers would need years of consistent success in Europe to climb the rankings and compete for the same prize money as great 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.”
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