Rangers’ Champions League exit to Dynamo Kyiv last night means that Celtic are Scotland’s sole representative in Europe’s top competition this season.
Celtic were guaranteed Champions League group-stage football after winning the Scottish Premiership and their rivals had to negotiate two rounds of qualifiers to hope to join the Parkhead club amongst Europe’s elite.
However, after Kyiv left Hampden with a 2-0 win and a place in the next round against RB Salzburg, Jeff Stelling has shared his Celtic fear for Rangers now that the huge financial benefits of reaching the Champions League group stages are gone for the Ibrox club.
Stelling fears for gap between Celtic and Rangers
Speaking this morning as the fallout over Rangers’ Champions League exit bites, Stelling says Celtic ‘threatens’ to leave Rangers in their wake now that the financial reward for appearing in the Champions League is gone.
Stelling said [talkSPORT], “If you were a Rangers fan, the big thing is, being out of the Champions League and dropped down to Europa League, last season Celtic were in a much better financial position already than Rangers.
“They banked £30m from the Champions League and they’ll probably bank more than that in the new expanded format this time round, while Rangers will get nothing like that even if they have a fantastic run.
“So, the gap they’re trying to close actually, threatens to widen.”
Celtic set to bank millions in Champions League revenue
Celtic earned record revenue last season and a large part of that was down to the club’s participation in the Champions League.
The club earned over £31m last season in total and with the new group stage format giving Celtic eight fixtures to negotiate, that figure will be easily surpassed this season.
Celtic are already Scotland’s richest club and with the club continuing to make huge sales in the transfer window due to their successful player-trading model, it’s not just the money earned on the European stage that will keep Celtic miles ahead of Rangers off the park this season.
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