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Maguire: £400m deal can rocket Rangers revenues past Celtic next season
Rangers can overtake Celtic’s annual turnover in the 2021-22 campaign – and the BT Sport Champions League TV deal is key.
That is according to finance guru and Football Insider columnist Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively with Rangers basking in the glow of a first Scottish Premiership title in a decade.
Now that the footballing gap has officially been bridged, many fans have speculated that Rangers may now begin to get closer to their rivals financially too.
Celtic made a profit of £100,000 for the 2019-20 financial year, down £11.3million on the previous annum. Turnover was £70.2m, down from £83.4m the previous tear.
Rangers meanwhile posted a loss of £15.9m from a £59m turnover and have not turned a profit since their liquidation and subsequent reformation in 2012.
Maguire predicts that Rangers will overtake Celtic next year if they reach the Champions League group stages, which BT pay £400m per season to cover.
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“The revenue gap was £69m in 2018 and it dropped to £11m in 2020,” he told Football Insider correspondent Adam Williams.
“Celtic do have some advantages. Their stadium is a little bit bigger, they’ve got more hospitality boxes and things of that nature. So they are in a position to still generate more money from matchday sales.
“But if Rangers are successful in Europe and they do manage to get into the group stages of the Champions League, then I would certainly anticipate them generating more money in terms of total revenue than Celtic on the back of that.
“Champions League is absolutely critical as far as Scottish football is concerned because the value of the domestic TV deal is very modest. If you get into the group stages you’re looking at about £30m.
“Rangers also benefit from BT Sport spending so much on the rights because the Champions League has various pots of money, one of which is linked to how much your domestic broadcaster has put in terms of buying the rights.”
Rangers have not reached the Champions League group stage since the 2011-12 campaign.
They could reach the Europa League quarter-finals if they can see off Slavia Prague in the last-16 second-leg after a 1-1 draw in the first-leg away from home.
In other news, Allan McGregor is planning to sign a new Rangers contract.