Celtic are apparently blowing ‘Rangers’ out the water in terms of European prize money, Football Insider can exclusively reveal.

In other news water is wet, the earth is round and liquidation is final.

The constant need to promote and compare the two Glasgow sides is more humorous than annoying with digital outlets treading down the same dismal path as legacy outfits.

Shoe-horning the club beginning with R into headlines about Celtic seems to be the backbone of many outlets, providing a comfort blanket to Ibrox fans while giving Celtic supporters another angle to contrast the poverty of events at Ibrox with that of their own club.

Anyone with the most basic knowledge of football will know that the prize money in the Champions League dwarves that on offer in the Europa League. It isn’t quite like the disparity between the EPL and SPFL but the highest payout from the Europa League is still way short of the prize money given to YB Bern for finishing 36^th in the Champions League.

One of the most lucrative payments available in the Europa League is from losing out in the Champions League Play Off, the losers pick up 5m euros and drop into the Europa League which is more than the 4.2m euros reward for reaching the semi-finals.

Every penny, pound and euro is a prisoner at Ibrox as they battle to keep losses for this season closer to £20m than £30m.

But really, there is no need for Football Insider to state the bleeding obvious to their readers:

Celtic are set to blow Rangers out of the water in terms of European prize money this season after qualifying for the Champions League knockout round play-offs.

That is the view of finance expert Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider the Scottish champions have already banked more than £40million from the elite club competition this season.

Celtic booked their place in the play-off round after earning 12 points from their eight matches in the revamped league phase of the Champions League.

Brendan Rodgers’s side will now face Bayern Munich for a place in the last 16, with the first leg taking place at Celtic Park on 12 February.

Rangers, meanwhile, made it through to the last 16 of the Europa League after finishing eighth in the table.

Celtic to have ‘massive’ advantage over Rangers

Borson revealed Celtic will earn significantly more than their Old Firm rivals from their European exploits this season.

Every team in the Champions League will be earning significantly more than the Ibrox Tribute Act who pick up more money from home matches with 50,000 attendances than they get directly from UEFA.

Winning a match in the Champions League comes with a 2.1m euros payout, in comparison a win in the Europa League provides a payout of 450,000 euros. Basically the Champions League pays out five times as much as the secondary competition.

Drooling over every pay out from the Europa League isn’t going to transform the desperate finances at Ibrox where Jose Cifuentes, Ben Davies, Kieran Dowell and Rabbi Matondo are being over £300,000 a month to play football for other clubs.

Keeping an eye on UEFA’s Financial Sustainability Rules would be worthwhile as new CEO Paddy Stewart battles against a wage bill that is sinking Phil Clement’s exciting young side.

CLICK HERE for breakdown on UEFA payments.

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The unanswered question over who decided to sell Kyogo?

As another mysterious Celtic transfer window is rolled up and packed away one question about the transfer of Kyogo Furuhashi remains unanswered.

Who had the final say in agreeing his move to Rennes?

Was it Brendan Rodgers or someone else? CEO Mchael Nicholson or his mentor Peter Lawwell?

Within an hour of the final whistle against YB Bern on January 22 it was as good as a done deal, multiple French outlets were reporting it as were the favoured Scottish messengers alongside the sweetener that Celtic were signing Jota.

Clearly the announcement was held back dependent on the outcome of the match against the Swiss champions, with the victory secured the final jigsaw pieces were put in place for a transfer that gets more and more baffling by the day.

It is unlikely that Celtic will lose the SPFL title without Kyogo but the credibility of the club is at stake, supporters are doubting their motives while other clubs and agents are noting that even towards the end of January further boosting the bank balance is the priority over the competitiveness of the team on the park.

Did Rodgers agree to the transfer in the full expectation that a replacement striker was on the way?

Did Nicholson/Celtic decide to crack on with the transfer hoping for a replacement but complacent enough that a double digit lead will be enough to secure the SPFL title for this season.

Neither answer is very appetising.

If anyone should know how slack and unreliable the Celtic board are it is Rodgers, last week at Villa Park he was forced to relive the painful events of 2018 regarding John McGinn.

Not only did Celtic fail to secure the signing of a former Season Ticket holder but in the final days of August Moussa Dembele was sold for £20m with no replacement brought in. Rodgers was left with the fragile talent of Leigh Griffiths and Odsonne Edouard to get the goals while a huge transfer surplus was created. Southampton paid £8m for Stuart Armstrong, Celtic finally offered half of that to Hibs for McGinn once he’d been given the VIP treatment from Aston Villa.

With those memories painfully fresh, even with bridges rebuilt since his February 2019 departure, it is hard to see Rodgers agreeing to selling Kyogo without the firmest of assurances that a replacement striker was about to be signed.

In that case either Nicholson failed to complete the expected signing or Celtic decided that the £10m offer from Rennes was too good to discuss with their manager.

The true story is unlikely to emerge but it shouldn’t take too long for other versions to surface.

Rodgers has tried a couple of times to claim that Kyogo wanted to leave- clearly not so strongly that he would have refused to play in the match against YB Bern.

Clearly Rodgers had enough faith to start Kyogo in what could be argued was the most important match of the season, one that secured progress from the group stage of the Champions League.

What really happened with McGinn, Marian Shved and Leicester City in the 2018/19 season has never fully emerged, the circumstances of Kyogo’s exit will never be uncovered, hopefully the consequences won’t be as savage and painful.