Rangers could bank £3.9m if they overturn their 1-0 semi-final first leg deficit to reach the Europa League final, according to The Rangers Review.
The lowdown
The Glasgow giants shipped a narrow defeat in the first leg last week after Angelino’s 85th-minute winner for their German hosts.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side are very much the underdogs in the tie, ranking a full 19 places below opponents RB Leipzig in the UEFA club coefficient ranking, although their hopes of making it to the Seville showpiece are far from dead.
On Thursday, they will welcome Leipzig to Ibrox, where they boast a strong record. The Gers have only lost five of their last 33 European matches on home soil.
The two teams are battling to face either West Ham United or Eintracht Frankfurt (who lead 2-1 heading back to Germany) in the final.
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The latest
In addition to the near-£4m incentive for beating Leipzig, Jonny McFarlane outlined for The Rangers Review (and on Twitter) how winning the tournament would also be quite lucrative.
Whichever club prevails in Seville on 18 May will receive €8.6m (£7.2m) in prize money. They would also set up a meeting with the winners of the Champions League in the UEFA Super Cup, a fixture projected to earn them €3.5m (£2.9m).
Perhaps the biggest reward, though, is Champions League group stage qualification for 2022/23, which is said to be worth a whopping €15.6m (£13.1m).
The verdict
This would be huge for Rangers. For instance, it can help them finance incoming transfers in the summer and also enable the club to present more lucrative contract offers to current players who might be considering a departure from Ibrox.
Perhaps above all else, it would help them to overcome the considerable losses they have incurred in recent times.
In the first six years under the current regime, the club has lost a cumulative £73.5m. In the most recent accounts, Rangers were £23.5m in the red, feeling the effects of the pandemic.
The benefits of this deep European run should not be underestimated, and there could be some huge windfalls to come their way if Van Bronckhorst and co can overturn the 1-0 deficit against Leipzig on Thursday night.
In other news, Tom English calls one Rangers man ‘nowhere near good enough’