Celtic hold a £50m key to dominating Rangers as 'enormous advantage' spells dire warning at Ibrox
Celtic have a financial gap that could prove tough for Rangers to close.
A football finance expert insists Celtic have built up such a cash gap that it will be hard for Rangers to get near them.
The Ibrox club trail the in-form Hoops by five points in the Premiership and if each of them win their semi-final matches, they’ll meet in this term’s Premier Sports Cup final. Celtic have won all their competitive matches this season including a 3-0 pasting of their rivals and a 5-1 smashing against Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League.
Stefan Borson - who was previously a financial adviser at Man City - has been noting the significant gains Celtic have made over Rangers off the park too. Celtic posted their 2023-24 accounts this month and revenue rose from £119.9million to a new club-record £124.6million – marking a 3.9% increase on the year previous
There is also record profit for the third year in a row. Celtic’s latest financial figures exceed Rangers’ after they accumulated £83.75million of revenue in 2022-23, with similar numbers for last campaign anticipated.
In the eyes of the financial expert, it provides a superior upper-hand for the current champions. Borson said to Football Insider: “Their wage bill is more under control than most Premier League teams. They are actually quite well-placed in some ways. Their wage bill for 2023 was £60million, which would be at the bottom of the Premier League.
“A very manageable wage bill and being a Champions League team means they are in quite an advantageous position once they are in the league stage of the Champions League, which they are this season and were last season.
“It’s a big advantage over Rangers, who just won’t have let’s say £50million that comes from the group stages. It may not be as much as £50million, but it’s probably pretty close. It’s just an enormous advantage they have over Rangers, so I think they are in quite a good spot to dominate financially.”