Celtic crashed out of the Champions League at the second-to-last hurdle last night after falling to a 3-2 aggregate defeat to the Greek champions AEK Athens at the Olympic Stadium.
Brendan Rodgers’ side went into this crucial game under intense pressure after a 1-1 draw in the reverse leg at Parkhead had left the tie balanced precariously and, with their manager’s public barney with the disaffected Belgian defender Dedryck Boyata dominating the headlines in the build-up, the feeling around the club wasn’t overly upbeat leading up to tonight.
Criticism had already been levelled at the club's board over the lack of recruitment that's gone on this summer and this result will, of course, make it more difficult for them to attract the sort of players that can bring the club forward - and to show off their wares to top tier club’s who might be willing to buy them at high mark-ups.
But their entry into the Europa League courtesy of this result will have wider-ranging implications than that.
Participation in the group stage of Europe’s second tier competition will provide a source of income to the club - assuming they can navigate an upcoming play-off - but the difference in the numbers that the club will rake in while playing in that competition and the ones they could have been had they managed to scrape through last night’s tie is remarkable.
A cursory look at the figures - which are published in Euro, forgive us - paints a worrying picture for the club’s short-term financial future.
The first piece of Uefa pie that the Hoops will miss out on is the guaranteed payout for progression to the Group stages of the Champions League, which stands at a meaty €15.25M for the premier competition and a comparably meagre €2.92M in the Europa League.
The second pot that they’ll envy their Greek opponents a piece of is the ‘Market Pool’ - the method by which TV money is paid out to clubs. A share of €292M would have been on its way to Glasgow this term had they progressed, but instead they’ll be doled out part of the €168M awarded to Europa League terms for the same purpose.
And there’s more.
New ranking tables for each competition have been created to reward consistent continental performances over the previous ten years. The highest rated team on the coefficient rankings receives the highest share and the payments are graded downwards. The Champions League teams will stand to earn a cut of a whopping €585M under this scheme, while there’s only €84M on offer to their less fortunate Europa League counterparts.
As well as that, naturally, the rewards for positive results in each tournament are vastly different - €2.7M is on offer for a win in the Champions League, with just €570k for the same in the Europa.
The importance of Champions League qualification for Celtic is scarcely more clearly underlined than in the opening paragraph of the club Chairman’s Iain Bankier statement which accompanied the publishing of the club’s financial reports for the year ending June 2017.
“These results,” it reads, “which declare sales revenue of £90.6m (2016: £52.0m) and a profit before taxation of £6.9m (2016: £0.5m), reflect the paramount importance to the Company of participation in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League.”
An even more positive interim report was published to bring the club’s shareholders up to date on the club’s financial affairs up to the end of 2017.
However, after the amount of money that Celtic have lost out on after events in Athens tonight, Bankier's next communique might just have a less cheery tone - and a little more red ink on it.
