Champions League riches still up for grabs
The agony of losing the Europa League final in such devastating circumstances on penalty kicks will be exacerbated when Rangers realise what they could have had by defeating Eintracht Frankfurt in Seville.
By defeating Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s club in Seville, the german scan now looked forward to Champions League football next term and a Super Cup date with either giants Liverpool or Real Madrid.
Rangers knew the stakes were high before the match - with not just silverware on offer.
The winners are parachuted into pot 1 of Europe's premier competition and would therefore be given, on paper at least, a kinder draw.
Rangers will have to do it the hard way, however. They are still in the Champions League but will have to come through the qualifiers. They will go into the third qualifying round and the League Path, alongside Benfica and PSV Eindhoven. The good news for Rangers is that they will be seeded, as will Benfica, so they avoid the Portuguese giants.
The two teams currently confirmed as being unseeded are Austrians Sturm Graz and Union Saint-gilloise of Belgium.
The amount of money on offer for Rangers is huge - Eintracht Frankfurt now already have that in their pocket, as do Celtic, who are in pot 4 of the main phase by virtue of winning the Scottish League.
If they qualify, it is predicted Rangers are in line to net at least £25million for qualifying for the group stages. And that’s before ticket revenue and commercial activity are taken into account.
Group stage participation brings in €15.6million alone. Each win is worth €2.8million and a draw brings in €930,000.
The TV money, which the club would share with Celtic and comes from the UK pool, has been estimated at €5.8million (smaller than normal due to a Covid-19 rebate).
Then there is the UEFA Coefficient with a pot split depending on where each club sits in the table.
The higher the place the bigger the split. Rangers are currently ranked 90th giving them a €3.4million payment, although the club are set to rise much higher after this season’s European performance.