Daily Mail confesses over extent of Ibrox debt

The Daily Mail has finally admitted that the Ibrox Tribute Act made a loss of over £4m last season.

Two weeks ago when the club published their annual report the one issue highlighted by every mainstream organisation was an operating profit of £252,000.

It seemed a strange area to focus on when the accounts were very clear about a loss of £4.14m but with the feel good factor for a new manager in the air perhaps the truth wasn’t so welcome.

There are genuine expectations that Philippe Clement will be given a January war-chest but reality suggests that Micky Beale’s £13m summer Revolution will need to be repaid before any more expensive stars move to Ibrox.

Last year really was as good as it gets for the tribute act with a first ever place in the group stage of the Champions League boosted by the sales of Calvin Bassey and Joe Aribo.

With a month to go until the January transfer window opens attention is slowly turning towards funding the Revolution with the Mail admitting:

First place also means avoiding the play-off round against a Champions League drop-out and progressing directly to the last 16. Financially, the flip side of being runners-up lies in the benefits of a potential additional European home game.

The importance of continental competition was again highlighted in Rangers’ most recent set of financial results, which showed a small operating profit of £252,000 and a post-tax loss of £4.14m.

Despite qualifying for the Champions League last season and achieving a record player sale from Calvin Bassey, revenue was still down by £3m in comparison to the previous year’s run to Seville — partly because there was no European football after Christmas bringing additional gate receipts and hospitality income.

Beale’s Revolution will have put more pressure on the wage bill, if there are no Bassey type deals in January or a run to the final of the Europa League losses for this season should be in the region of £20m.

So far current directors have been prepared to provide loans to meet pay roll demands with their loans then converted to worthless shares in a loss making company.

In recent times Dave King and Douglas Park have walked away, if the current directors get cold feet over propiing things up difficulties will kick in.