By Adam Williams, Finance & Governance Correspondent

20th Apr, 2023 | 4:00pm

Sources: £60m on the line for Celtic and Rangers amid new twist in refereeing scandal

The Super League project which has promised to double European revenues for the likes of Celtic and Rangers is confident it will not be derailed by infighting between its member clubs, sources have told Football Insider.

Barcelona and Real Madrid – two of the three remaining Super League clubs alongside Juventus – are perpetual rivals but hostilities between the two clubs have intensified in recent weeks and months.

The club’s respective presidents, Joan Laporta and Florentino Perez, last met to discuss the Super League with the competition’s organisers A22 Sports Management in January.

But tensions have risen since, in a scandalous twist, it emerged that Barcelona made payments to top Spanish referee Jose Maria Enrique Negreira between 2001 and 2018.

Perez and Laporta have since traded offensives in press conferences, with Barca accusing Real of being historically favoured by the fascist Franco dictatorship.

Real responded with an extraordinary attack video posted on social media, claiming that the Franco regime in fact favoured their Catalan rivals.

But it is understood that A22 believe that the two clubs can cooperate as they attempt to relaunch the breakaway competition which was aborted in the face of a huge backlash in April 2021.

A22 CEO Bernd Reichart admitted in March that he had held exploratory talks with clubs in Scotland.

While the German former television executive stopped short of namechecking Rangers and Celtic directly, it is believed both sides would be invited to join a revised version of the continental competition with 60-80 teams.

Documents seen by this site show that A22 has told clubs that they can double their European revenues, which if true would mean the two Glasgow sides would be in line for annual Super League income of £60m.

Those projections have been heavily disputed by broadcasters, industry insiders, and other key football stakeholders.

That includes Football Insider‘s resident finance guru Kieran Maguire, who said earlier this month there is “zero chance” that Rangers and Celtic will be among A22’s top priorities as they look to resurrect the Super League.

Some analysts also believe that Juventus’s commitment to the competition is waning as they grapple with the fallout from a financial scandal which has seen several former executives banned from football.

In other news, Rangers make move to sign Jose Cifuentes as ‘big offers’ on the table from Leeds United & co