Ibrox chief Robertson downgrades Champions League jackpot from £40m to just £8m

Stewart Robertson has claimed that reaching the group stage of the Champions League will only boost Ibrox finances by £8m!

For years favoured media outlets have been happy to claim that reaching the group stage will solve the financial issues of the club with £40m rolling in alongside Zodac the Priest.

Reality is around £20m direct from UEFA, a nice chunk of ticket sales and prize money based on performances. Getting pumped by Ajax and Napoli doesn’t earn anything beyond the participation fee.

After knocking out PSV Eindhoven to reach the group stage the moonbeams were launched with £180 ticket packages snapped up by gullible bears.

Suddenly the message was sent out that Giovanni van Bronckhorst was happy with his squad, they had reached the Europa League Final a few months earlier with seven new signings made over the summer.

Last week’s 3-0 defeat from Napoli didn’t feature any of the new signings creating a storm of criticism with recruitment and the lack of spending the main points of anger.

On Tuesday John Bennett produced a video interview to remind everyone that he is a bear and a great guy. Today Robertson has provided quotes to the docile Jonny McFarlane to relay on to subscribers to the Rangers Review.

Typically McFarlane asked no questions as he nodded in agreement to everything that he was told the Rangers Review could publish.

“Every position is worth €1.1m. So, as the 31st team, we will get €2.2m. If you are Real Madrid, who are number one, you get €36m.  

“Back in the day the Champions League was worth much closer to £30m but now it’s going to be much closer, for us, to £20m. So there’s a big, big difference. 

“I know people raised their eyebrows when I said us reaching the Europa League semi-final was the equivalent of us reaching the Champions League. That’s why, because you have all those extra games to get to that stage.” 

I put it to Robertson that my tentative calculations suggest there is approximately £8m difference between Europa League and Champions League revenue. The managing director points out it’s even less than that. 

“It depends on your co-efficient. For us it’s less,” he said. “There’s also an element related to transfer deals you do, some of the payments will be contingent on reaching the Champions League group stage. There aren’t many of those at Rangers, but there are a couple. Those tend to be one-offs but there are some costs that come out of it too,”

And with that McFarlane had his scoop, an exclusive just like a real journalist, handed to him for being firmly on message, trotting out the party line to bears on every subject matter. Keep up the obedience and there might be another in a few months.

Today’s stories from my sitdown with Rangers managing director Stewart Robertson??

The £40m UCL myth: https://t.co/KfD7T9gkI2
£23m cap ex detailed: https://t.co/gVuKUuWT3S
Disabled facilities AGM plan: https://t.co/UqjTYxq3NE

More to come tomorrow about recruitment and more…

— Jonny McFarlane (@jonnyrmcfarlane) September 21, 2022

Telling us what makes the board sound better for there own jobs…where is all the gate income money details onto of the uefa money?

— ?? (@OranjeandBlue) September 21, 2022

Wow theyre going all out in holly n phil style to limit the damage of recent results. None of this hides the fact gio has lost the dressing room. We can all see it

— Greg Martin (@gregmartin19) September 21, 2022

?? Revenue is half £40m figure often reported
?? Last 8 required to hit that number
?? How UCL co-efficient change has affected cash

Stewart Robertson explains Rangers’ Champions League financial reality to @jonnyrmcfarlane??https://t.co/cQfjc4WqAp

— The Rangers Review (@RangersReview55) September 21, 2022

That’s Bennett and Robertson came out via fan media in past 2 days on a PR offensive. This sort of chat from Robertson has me thinking our financials will annoy us somewhat and they are trying to soft land it somewhat.

— Chris Scott (@TopherScott86) September 21, 2022

There’s the bold Malmo making 30m euros with a 22k capacity stadium. What about sponsor bonuses for making CL groups? pic.twitter.com/cCNRGjFJPv

— Stuart SPC (@thegandhisflip) September 21, 2022

This just asks more questions than answers. The clubs seems to be failing on all levels from top to bottom the now.

— Has Gio Gone (@GetGioGone) September 21, 2022

All seems a bit like excuses now. Last year it was all about how much money we were making and how it would go back into improving the team and now fans are questioning things it seems like goalposts have moved. I understand fully the business side of thing but still lots of ??

— Peter Adam (@petera1872) September 21, 2022

The club won’t make anything close to £10m from tickets. Costs significant in putting on a CL game. I’d be surprised if it was £5m.

— Jonny McFarlane (@jonnyrmcfarlane) September 21, 2022

Not sure where the £30m is factually coming from?
Accounts will come out and we will soon see in black and white Chris.

— Jonny McFarlane (@jonnyrmcfarlane) September 21, 2022

It’s not. They’ve not included ticket revenue, nations market share, Sponsorship and merchandise share plus the increase in club sponsorship. Malmo made more in the groups than we did reaching the europa final last year.

— Robert (@RobertR________) September 21, 2022