Ibrox Tribute Act misses out of £50m FIFA windfall

James Tavernier won’t be heading to the expanded World Club Cup in 2025 that would have netted the Ibrox Tribute Act £50m and projected Sam Lammers and Cyriel Dessers to a global audience.

The first hint of the competition was greeted with joy by the loyal Ibrox messengers who put two and two together to get two hundred and twenty-two.

With no concrete qualification terms announced the more excitable messengers looked at the UEFA co-efficient table and projected that one club per country would come forward from Europe which served as a useful deflection from last season’s Celtic treble.

Last season the Tribute Act edged ahead of the hoops in a five year co-efficient table based solely on their Europa League results.

Media partners Sky Italia have now published entrance qualification which allows for two clubs per nation with a four year co-efficient table drawn up from the Champions League.

Not even for the novelty element of inviting the club with the WORST EVER CHAMPIONS LEAGUE record will be considered meaning that Tav and his team-mates will be watching on from afar.

The Sun reports:

But the Gers have feared all along that there could be rule changes designed to help more of the continent’s ‘bigger’ clubs to get access to the showpiece.

And now a report from Sky Italia – who are signed up as Italian media partners for the event – is claiming that the four-year coefficient will be calculated using results in the Champions League ONLY.

That obviously counts out the Gers, who have only qualified for the competition once in the last decade, and recorded statistically the worst results in the history of the group stages under Giovanni van Bronckhorst.

The Sky Italia piece claimed that Inter had already booked their spot for the showpiece by dint of reaching the last 16 of the Champions League this season.

But the Gers have feared all along that there could be rule changes designed to help more of the continent’s ‘bigger’ clubs to get access to the showpiece.

And now a report from Sky Italia – who are signed up as Italian media partners for the event – is claiming that the four-year coefficient will be calculated using results in the Champions League ONLY.

That obviously counts out the Gers, who have only qualified for the competition once in the last decade, and recorded statistically the worst results in the history of the group stages under Giovanni van Bronckhorst.