“Big fish” Rangers still trailing Europe’s elite

ALONG with their Old Firm rivals, Celtic, Rangers continue to enjoy the status of being Scottish football royalty, earning way more money than every other club in Scotland. The Gers’ finances for 2020-21 underlined the gulf between the Glasgow duo and the rest of Scotland, but it also highlighted the challenge facing Rangers in competing with Europe’s top names.

With an appetising Europa League encounter with Borussia Dortmund on the horizon, Rangers will be reminded of how far they still have to come. Dortmund may not be Bayern, but the Ibrox club will be only too aware that they were once in the same ballpark as BVB and met them in the 1967 European Cup-Winners’ Cup. In 2022, they will be the underdogs.

Rangers won their first Scottish Premier title in a decade under Steven Gerrard in 2020-21, but their losses increased by 43% to £ 24.7 million. The last time Rangers made a profit was in 2013.

The club’s revenues dropped from £ 59 million to £ 47.7 million (-20%), largely due to a dramatic fall (-49%) in matchday income, which was partially offset by increases in both broadcasting (+39%) and commercial revenues (+9%).

Rangers’ wage bill rose by 10% to £ 47.7 million, which entirely absorbed the club’s revenues and was a marked difference from 2019-20 when wages were 73% of income. By way of comparison, Celtic’s wage bill totalled £ 51.7 million and was 85% of total earnings.

Scottish football still appears to be undervalued by many people. According to data produced by football analyst Swiss Ramble, the TV deal, for example, is paltry compared to many leagues, just € 34 million per annum compared to the € 3.6 billion awarded to the Premier League and € 2 billion paid to La Liga. The total income of the two leagues is also eye-opening; the Scottish Premiership generated € 221 million while the Premier League earned € 5.1 billion.

Consequently, matchday income is far more important to Scottish clubs than their counterparts across many leagues. Overall, 48% of revenues is derived from matchday, although Rangers’ matchday cash amounted to 38% in 2020-21. By contrast, matchday income amounts to 13% of Premier League income, 11% of both France’s Ligue 1 and Serie A, 15% of La Liga and 16% of the Bundesliga’s revenues.

One area that Rangers need to improve is in their player trading activities. Over nine seasons, they have made less than £ 10 million in profits from player sales, versus the £ 100 million made by Celtic.

Rangers have started the 2021-22 season reasonably well and are top of the table once more, although they have been beaten. They went out of the Champions League rather cheaply but they go into 2022 with the Europa League play-off awaiting them. In November, they lost manager Gerrard to Aston Villa, replacing him with Giovanni van Bronckhorst. The odds are they will probably retain the league title they won earlier this year, but can they make a splash in Europe?