Neil Doncaster brokers Rangers Sky TV extras deal as SPFL chief helps club unlock cash in major armchair fans boost

Scottish football's armchair fans have been handed a potential title run-in bonus after Rangers agreed to let Sky’s cameras into Ibrox for one extra top flight game.

The arrangement is a part of a trade-off which will also allow club bosses to unlock extra cash by streaming two further home games on-line on a pay-per-view basis before the end of the current campaign. And it has been brokered with the full consent and assistance of both the SPFL board and its chief executive Neil Doncaster. The deal means the broadcaster has secured the rights to screen an additional fixture from inside Ibrox and, with this season’s title fight looking all set to go down to the wire, that could turn out to be a box office post-split event.

Although it’s been thrashed out in addition to the existing £30m-a-season TV package with the SPFL we understand Rangers have not struck out on their own to make it happen in defiance of league bosses. On the contrary, Doncaster was approached by the Ibrox club and asked to help facilitate the proposal after Philippe Clement secured his side with a place in the knockout rounds of this season’s Europa League. That in turn unlocked the potential for Rangers to sell more pay-per-view matches to their own supporters on the basis that they will have to move at least two matches from their scheduled Saturday 3pm kick-off slots.

But, in order to do that, they required the permission of Sky as well as the approval of the SPFL board. Under the terms of the current contract, which runs until 2029, clubs are entitled to sell a maximum of five PPV matches per season to a UK audience. But, after a series of talks with Doncaster and Rangers commercial director Karim Virani, Sky agreed to up that number to