SPFL clubs brace for Champions League money explosion as Celtic and Rangers spark bumper payments

Scottish Premiership clubs who miss out on the Champions League are each in line to land soaring solidarity payments from UEFA which will exceed £1million.

UEFA's mammoth tournament shake-up will tee up top-flight SPFL sides to scoop £1.1m – with a rise of 80 per cent incoming under fresh terms of the new-look format. The gargantuan fee, which is edging towards what some earn in the SPFL distribution pot, comes fresh from clubs receiving welcome news over a boosted payment in the wake of Celtic and Rangers reaching the group stage of the Champions League last season.

This season nine clubs – Hibs, Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, Livingston, Motherwell, Ross County, St Johnstone, St Mirren and relegated Dundee United – earned £650,000 in tax-free cash which will soon drop into club bank accounts, report the Daily Mail. Promoted Dundee are not eligible for that payment but will be in the money when the cash is divvied up in 12 months' time – and this figure is even higher. The boost comes after both Glasgow rivals reached the Champions League in the same season for the first time in over a decade. Hearts do not receive the bumper payout – up from £340,000 from the previous year – because they reached the group stage of the Conference League.

Aberdeen, however, landed the fee plus guaranteed group stage football this time around but will not be eligible for payment next season. Increased solidarity payments have been a mainstay in the mantra of Aleksandr Ceferin as he aims to keep all clubs on board amid never-ending agitation from some of his biggest member clubs pushing for a renegade Super League.

The winners of this season's Scottish Premiership title are expected to earn in excess of £30m from the new-look Champions League