Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Gers’ Europa League run poses questions, says Johnston
ALASTAIR Johnston believes Rangers’ Europa League run has thrown up questions about the club’s future in any structural shake-up of the game.
The Ibrox club and its supporters are still euphoric after the thrilling 3-1 win over RB Leipzig at Ibrox last Thursday night took them to their first European final in 14 years.
Former Gers chairman Johnston, now a nonexecutive director, will be in Seville to see Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side take on another Bundesliga outfit – Eintracht Frankfurt – on May 18 and he believes the achievement highlighted the club’s potential.
Johnston recalled the quick collapse of the bid to create a European Super League last April but insists the concept will come back under another guise and believes Rangers should be part of any conversations about restructuring football.
The businessman told the PA news agency that the Light Blues’ Europa League campaign leads to a bigger issue “in the context of where we are in the world of football today and where the world football is going to go”.
He said: “If Rangers are going to proceed into bigger leagues there is going to be a real chance of that happening within the next 10 years because the football landscape in the next 10 years is going to be significantly changed.
“Foreign owners will begin to bear their influence, their money and their aggression to create a restructuring of the game.
“They are not paying all that money they are playing for clubs without there being some ambitions in sight. The big five football countries will be under very strong pressure from investors and those with an appetite to make the top clubs’ European tournament which failed the last time.”