The Celtic breakdown of how Champions League qualification has taken club from Euro paupers to princes in two years

The value of Celtic reaching the Champions League group stage was laid bare after their comparatively paltry Europa League revenue from the 2020/21 season was revealed.

Neil Lennon’s Hoops side crashed out of UEFA’s second tier competition at the group stage after finishing bottom of Group H after a woeful campaign.

European football’s governing body published their revenue distributions for their competitions during that season.

And it shows the Parkhead side banked just £7million which was £4m less than Rangers who made it to the last 16 where they were eliminated by Slavia Prague.

Rangers made it all the way to the Europa League Final this season where they lost to Eintracht Frankfurt and managing director Stewart Robertson claimed they would have earned more than reaching the Champion League group stage. It’s believed the Ibrox club will have accrued in excess of £40m.

Manchester United reach the Final in 2020/21 where they lost to Villarreal and the Old Trafford side earned £15m from UEFA for their run.

After publishing the figures respected football finance blogger @SwissRamble wrote: “The Hoops will earn considerably more from next season’s Champions League, as will Rangers if they manage to reach the group stage.”

The season just past would have been more lucrative to Celtic after they did at least get into the Europa Conference League knockout stage only to lose to Bodo/Glimt as they exited three UEFA competitions.

But next season is will be huge financially in Europe after winning the Scottish Premiership to secure a Champions League group stage place.

UEFA’s distribution list for the premier competition shows that Ferencvaros banked £16m – the lowest of all group stage clubs – after picking up just one