Sources: Rangers and Celtic in line for £60m jackpot as ‘aggressive’ plot revealed
Celtic and Rangers could each earn over £60million per year from a revamped European Super League, Football Insider has learned.
That is twice what the Glasgow sides expect to earn from Champions League participation in a typical year.
Bernd Reichart – CEO of A22 Sports Management, the company attempting to resurrect the Super League – recently admitted that he has held exploratory talks with teams from Scotland.
The German former television executive stopped short of namechecking Rangers and Celtic directly, but it is believed both sides would be invited to join a revised version of the continental competition with 60-80 teams.
The new Super League would run concurrently with existing domestic leagues and be multi-tiered, with promotion and relegation inbuilt.
Documents seen by this site show that A22 have proposed two models, one ‘aggressive’ (with the Super League replacing the Champions League) and one ‘conservative’ (the Super League running alongside the Champions League).
It is claimed that either approach would see revenues for participating teams double when compared to their usual earnings from Uefa competitions.
The total pot could therefore top £4billion, twice the sum Uefa distributed to clubs in the 2021-22 Champions League season.
Many analysts suggests that this rise would come at the expense of domestic TV deals across the continent, although A22 claim that an increase in solidarity payments could “re-energise” individual leagues.
Neither Celtic nor Rangers were included in the botched Super League launch in 2021, which saw nine of the original 12 clubs pull out within days of the initial announcement.
Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus, however, remain committed to the breakaway plot, which they insist is the only way to make elite European football financially sustainable.
The two Glasgow sides finished bottom of their respective Champions League groups this season.
It was the first time Rangers, whose six losses in 2022-23 represented the worst-ever Champions League campaign by an individual club , have played on European football’s biggest stage in a decade.
Whoever wins the Scottish Premiership will again qualify automatically for the group stages next term, while the runners-up must navigate two knockout rounds before they reach that stage.
Celtic are nine points clear of Rangers with nine games to go.
It is unclear exactly how qualification for the Super League would be achieved under Reichart’s plans for an expanded and seemingly more meritocratic competition.
In other news, Rangers expert fumes as controversial Todd Cantwell footage re-examined.