Credit: Imago

Jack Dawson

Fri 10 April 2026 11:45, UK

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Rangers will be praying that Crystal Palace win the Europa Conference League to boost their chances of qualifying for the Champions League’s league phase automatically.

The Gers have a serious chance of bypassing the qualification phase of the competition this summer if they win the Scottish Premiership.

This is thanks to a UEFA loophole, as if the winner of the Champions League has already qualified for the tournament via their domestic position, then the club with the best individual coefficient will automatically enter the league phase.

At present, Rangers are in an excellent position to do this, sitting just one point behind Heart of Midlothian at the summit, while already boasting a superb coefficient.

However, Shakhtar Donetsk’s recent Conference League victory threatens to derail this, and Danny Rohl will be praying that Crystal Palace can knock the Ukrainian side out to boost Rangers’ Champions League hopes.

Rangers can bypass Champions League qualification phase.

With the coefficient based on a five-year period, Rangers currently have 59.25 points, despite their recent poor showings in Europe.

The Gers looked to have serious competition for this loophole with Olympiacos, who currently have 62.250 points. However, the Greek side now looks unlikely to win their division and sits five points behind AEK Athens in third.

However, Shakhtar Donetsk have now emerged as serious challengers. Sitting on 54.750 points, they still have potentially four matches to beat Rangers’ points tally as they look to win the Conference League.

After their 3-0 victory over AZ Alkmaar, they are in the driving seat going into the quarter-final second leg.

On top of this, they also sit second in the Ukrainian Premier League, but could go three points clear at the top if they win their game in hand.

Four wins and four clean sheets for the home teams ✅#UECL pic.twitter.com/3n8qQR0J7W

— UEFA Conference League (@Conf_League) April 9, 2026

However, with Crystal Palace also winning 3-0 in their Conference League quarter-final first leg, the two are likely to meet in the semi-finals, with the draw already being made.

As a result, Rangers will be praying that Palace can knock Shakhtar out and end any hopes that they can catch their coefficient total.

What would Rangers’ qualification to the Champions League be worth?

Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, former Manchester City financial adviser Stefan Borson stated that Rangers could earn £60million from reaching the league phase of the Champions League.

This amount of income could be transformational for the Gers, and really give them an edge over Celtic in the transfer market.

There is a possibility that Rangers could earn even more if they are able to progress into the knockout stages.

However, winning the Scottish Premiership title is crucial to achieving this, and as it stands, there is still plenty of work that needs to be done.