Even a sugar daddy couldn’t help Rangers bridge the gap to Celtic now… how new UEFA Fair Play rules will affect spending on players

To close the gap with Celtic, Graeme Souness reckons his former club Rangers will need to spend in the region of £50m, with three or four quality signings, he believes, making the difference.

That is, of course, a problem. Speaking on William Hill’s Three Up Front podcast, the former Ibrox boss acknowledged the stark facts of the situation when he said: ‘Rangers have no money at the moment. If they were to spend £50m it would be nip and tuck between the two.’

Since a punishing 3-0 defeat at Parkhead, the topic of external investment has focused the attention of supporters, with a financial deficit off the park now being mirrored by the deficit on the park.

And with their arch-rivals looking to rake in another £40m from Champions League entry, many now see a Middle Eastern sovereign or a Texas billionaire as their best hope.

Before the defeat to Celtic on 1 September, City AM reported that Rangers had been targeted by a US consortium for a £150m takeover, suggesting that some of the club’s existing shareholders may be prepared to sell.

Majority shareholder Dave King, the former chairman, was not present. He rejected the report outright.

Even if a benevolent sugar daddy with a fat wallet came along and waved a chequebook, UEFA’s financial sustainability rules, introduced two years ago, would make it devilishly difficult to overtake Celtic.

UEFA’s rules are stricter than those imposed on Everton for breaching Financial Fair Play regulations, making compliance with them a condition of participation in European football.

They have been drawn up by the European umbrella organisation after consultation with the European Club Association (ECA), the European competitions, FIFPro, supporters, the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of Europe. They are intended to ensure that clubs are stable and solvent and keep their costs under control.

And as football financier Kieran Maguire tells Mail Sport, the rules effectively mean Rangers “cannot emulate Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain or Chelsea if they have been taken over by super-rich individuals or sovereign wealth funds”.

Celtic’s new signing Luke McCowan will face recent Rangers signing Connor Barron

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers had a big spending spree in the most recent transfer window

Clubs will be subject to controls on selection costs for the first time. Spending on player and coach wages, transfers and agent fees will be capped at 80 percent of a club’s income this season.

Maguire, co-host of the Price of Football podcast, revealed: ‘What UEFA have said is that for every £100 that Rangers or Celtic generate from ticket sales, TV revenue and commercial deals – plus the average of their player sales over the last three years – they can spend £80 of that on player costs in this calendar year.

‘Player costs are wages, agent costs and transfer costs written off. If Rangers sign a player for £10m for four years, that’s £2.5m cost going into the accounts for that player every year.’

Next season, the amount a club is allowed to spend on player costs will drop to 70 percent of its calendar year income.

While it is impossible to predict what a club’s ultimate financial figures will be in the future, the Champions League football competition and a profitable player swap model through the sales of players such as Jota and Matt O’Riley guarantee Celtic significantly more room to manoeuvre under UEFA’s sustainability restrictions than their city rivals.

Simply put, 70 per cent of what Celtic earn will be a significantly higher figure than 70 per cent of what Rangers bring in. And there is no magic wand the Ibrox club can wave to turn the situation around quickly.

“When Rangers won the Premier League (in 2021) and qualified for the Champions League, they were able to close the gap thanks to the television revenue,” Maguire added.

‘But they had to keep going and they didn’t. Celtic are now dominant on the pitch again — and off the pitch they don’t seem to have the internal conflicts that seem to be affecting Rangers.

‘I speak to John Bennett (Rangers chairman) and get on really well with him. I’ve also spoken to Stewart Robertson, the former CEO. They came on our podcast.

‘I’m a Brighton fan and I keep an eye on Rangers because Connor Goldson was ex-Brighton and Jamie Murphy also left us for Rangers.

‘But I have no partisan position on this and it is clear that Celtic have moved forward. How do we catch up with Rangers is the question now.

‘I think Celtic have to get a lot of things wrong and Rangers have to get a lot of things right before the gap can be closed.’

As Manchester City and Leicester have shown, rules can always be challenged. While a call to a top sports lawyer like Nick De Marco might push FFP charges in the English Premier League to the back burner, UEFA stipulates that any club planning to compete in the competition must play the game.

Punishments for violations can range from heavy fines to being banned from the competition altogether. Given how lucrative European football is compared to the SPFL, the latter is simply not an option.

“If you look at the value of the domestic Scottish TV deal, it would be worth around £4m to secure it,” Maguire said.

‘However, Celtic would receive £2.5m if they won any of the eight games in the new Champions League format.

‘They get £30 million just for their participation, which is not the case in the Europa League, where Rangers play.

‘That’s why it’s such a challenge for Rangers now. I read John Bennett’s comments in the summer and they were quite bleak.

‘If I was a Rangers fan I would have to accept that. John didn’t cause the problem, he just calls it what it is and as football fans sometimes we don’t want to hear the cold hard facts.

‘But Rangers still have a lot of work to do in a country where fans believe that second place equals a place in the table.’