Stefan Borson: Jim Gillespie must improve Rangers’ player trading amid ‘serious’ European qualification issue

Jim Gillespie must focus on improving Rangers’ player trading after starting work as the new chief executive at Ibrox. 

That is according to former Manchester City financial adviser Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider that would help the Glasgow giants mitigate the “very serious” change to European qualification for Scottish clubs. 

Scotland has lost its second Champions League place from 2027-28 onwards, having slipped out of the top 15 in Uefa’s coefficient ranking. 

The allocation for Europe has also been reduced from five teams to four, while they will each enter qualifying in earlier rounds. 

It could have a dramatic impact on Rangers’ financial situation moving forwards due to how much they rely on European revenue. 

How Rangers can mitigate European blow

Rangers have been criticised for their player trading in recent years after failing to turn a profit on several players. 

They recorded a £600,000 loss on player sales last season, while rivals Celtic made a £31.5million profit. 

Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, Borson discussed Gillespie’s priorities after starting work as the new Ibrox CEO last week, having joined from St Mirren to replace Patrick Stewart. 

“He will have a lot of the same priorities that the previous CEO had,” said Borson. 

“I think there are two main areas that Rangers need to focus on. One is making more money from player trading and two now is dealing with mitigating this change in the European competition situation, which I consider to be a very serious change to the financial viability of the biggest Scottish clubs.

“They need to find a way around it in terms of generating more money probably from youth and the trading of players. But look, it's not easy to do. Everybody's trying to do it.” 

Why Scottish clubs are set to generate less European revenue

Borson expects Scottish clubs to generate less revenue from Europe, placing more emphasis on them making money from player sales. 

“That seems to me to be the way they're going to have to fill this hole that's going to be left by the change in Uefa competition rules,” said Borson. 

“I think net-net, the Scottish clubs are going to generate less money from Uefa competitions going forward. 

“It becomes even more important that you win the league, and it becomes even more important that you're generating through player trading.” 

Rangers moved up to second in the Scottish Premiership following their 4-1 victory over Aberdeen, with leaders Hearts sitting three points above them in the table.