Europa League: What awaits Rangers & Celtic in group stage?
- Published
After anxious nights in Yerevan and Alkmaar, Rangers and Celtic both clinched their places in the Europa League group stages.
It will be Rangers and Celtic's fourth consecutive seasons in the groups, with both sides finding out their fates in the draw from 11:00 BST on Friday.
The Old Firm will both be in Pot 2, which means they cannot draw PSV, Eintracht Frankfurt, Red Star Belgrade, Leicester City, Lokomotiv Moscow and Genk. But who might they face..?
Pot one contains heavyweight names from Europe's top-five leagues, but also ominous opponents from less heralded competitions. Celtic did Lazio home and away a couple of seasons back, but Bayer Leverkusen ended Rangers' knockout ambitions two seasons ago.
Febrile atmosphere in Croatia not withstanding, Dinamo Zagreb clearly look like the most generous team to draw.
Pot three looks relatively well-stacked, too. West Ham, Marseille, Sociedad and Betis bring big league chops, while the likes of Fenerbahce and Spartak would be journeys worth avoiding.
Ludogorets is perhaps the most favourable opponent after Rangers' vanquishers Malmo squeezed them out of the Champions League qualifiers.
Plenty of familiar names loiter among the pot four teams. Sparta Prague scudded Celtic home and away in the group stages last season, and Ferencvaros did for them in Champions League qualifying, just as Midtjylland did this season.
Rangers had a couple of group meetings with Rapid Vienna three seasons ago, while Galatasaray eventually did for St Johnstone in this season's qualifying rounds.
How much is it worth & when are the matches?
Qualifying for the groups guarantees 3.6m euros (£3.1m), with every victory garnering a further 630,000 euros (£541,000) and a draw 210,000 euros (£180,000).
Winning the group would add another 1.1m euros (£900,000), with the runners-up picking up half that amount, and a further 500,000 euros(£429,000) added to the pot for reaching the last 32. And the prize money increases from there, up to 8.6m euros (£7.4m) for the competition's winners.
Add in TV money, commercial revenues, and gate receipts, and it's a decent earner - if not Champions League money.
