Is Celtic & Rangers both being in Champions League good for Scotland?
- Published
Celtic will play in the Champions League group stage next season for the first time since 2017
The famous Champions League anthem will ring around both Celtic Park and Ibrox this season for the first time since 2007.
Celtic and Rangers are back at the top table of European football and with it comes cash, the chance to compete against the best in the world, and prestige for the Scottish game.
However, with the Glasgow giants already operating on a different financial planet to the other clubs in the country, that huge windfall comes with challenges for the competitive balance of domestic competition.
Here, BBC Scotland looks at whether having two clubs in the group stage will really help the Scottish game as a whole.
A widening gulf
The gap between the Old Firm and the rest in terms of income is obvious, but it is worth outlining. For the year 2020-21 - the last full year set of results available - Celtic spent just over £50m of their £60m income on wages, with Rangers not far behind on £47m in staff costs.
The third biggest wage bill in the country last year was Aberdeen's, which stood more than five times lower at £9m, which, in turn, is more than double that of Livingston or Ross County.
Champions League revenue - which includes participation payments, coefficient cash and TV money - will only enhance the Old Firm's income.
"You're not far short of £20m-£25m before a ball is kicked," says football finance expert Kieran Maguire of Liverpool University. "And that's ignoring the impact on gate receipts, sponsors, bonuses, so it is very lucrative.
"When Celtic were in the Champions League in 2018, their revenue exceeded £100m in total for the very first time. Not being in, in some subsequent years, did have a noticeable impact on their finances."
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In football, a greater wage spend generally correlates to success, and when Celtic returned to the Champions League in 2016-17 after a three-year absence and backed it up the next season, it gave them a platform to win four domestic trebles on the spin.
Only through director loans, fantastic consistency in the Europa League and Celtic's failure to reach Europe's elite competition since 2018, have Rangers managed to close the revenue and wage gap, which helped them claim the 2020-21 league title.
It shows what Champions League money can do to influence competition between the Glasgow rivals, never mind the rest of the clubs with a fraction of their resources.
Not all bad for the rest
Celtic and Rangers getting to the Champions League, having had extended runs in the Europa League, is not all bad news for the chasing pack however.
The better Scotland's coefficient ranking, the more spots open up for other teams to play in European competition and the less likely they are to have to go through multiple qualifying rounds.
Heart of Midlothian, for example, are guaranteed at least group stage football in the Europa Conference League and only entered the Europa League at the play-off round due to Scotland's rising score.
"Last time we were in Europe, we had to win four ties back-to-back to try to get into the Europa League," Hearts head coach Robbie Neilson said after Rangers reached the Europa League final last season.
"Getting European football is attractive for players coming in from our perspective and it brings up the stock of Scottish football as well. The coefficient of Rangers going so far, all the other teams will get a payment."
Watch the goals - and Craig Gordon's huge late save - in Hearts' first-leg Zurich loss
The bonuses Neilson refers to are the so-called 'solidarity payments' from Uefa, which go to the Premiership sides who do not make Europe. These are to go up to about £15m and will be shared among the other top-flight clubs over four years from 2024.
It is much-needed and welcome cash, but it would do very little to offset the riches Celtic and Rangers make from the Champions League.
"We're talking hundreds of thousands or perhaps a million or two million at best in terms of solidarity payments," Maguire explains. "That's compared to the minimum of £30m Celtic and Rangers could get from Champions League participation.
"Those clubs already have a significant financial advantage in respect of the rest of the Scottish Premiership. So there are significant financial gaps, which will be amplified through participation in the Champions League."
So will it benefit Scottish football?
It depends on what you want from the game. If the essence of Scottish football is to have a competitive domestic league, which could be won by more than two teams (Aberdeen were the last non-Old Firm club to win the league in 1985), then either of the big Glasgow sides in the Champions League is further bad news.
If you accept the reality of modern football and the financial disparities that exist anyway, but still at least want a title race, then it is better both Celtic and Rangers get in so one does not get financially too far ahead of the other.
And away from the finances, there are other benefits. Some young Scottish players - provided they get a chance - will play at the highest level, which should help the national side and grow Scotland's reputation.
With that, and more European places, fans of other clubs get to enjoy more continental football and potentially attract some better players and receive more cash for their own talent.
Those benefits are not insignificant and could make a difference to the quality of the league, if not its competitiveness at the top.
But the reality is consistent Champions League qualification for Rangers and Celtic will make underdog feats such as St Johnstone's double cup win of two seasons ago less likely. Particularly given the gap is arguably as big as it ever has been.
Both Old Firm sides have completed unbeaten league campaigns in the past six seasons, a feat not previously managed in Scotland since 1899, when a season was only 18 games long.
Dundee United are the only side other than Celtic to beat Rangers in the Premiership in two terms, while it's 36 games since Celtic lost in the league.
So, while a rising tide may lift all ships, it makes little difference if two of those ships are already miles ahead.