Rangers in line for stunning entry to all-new FIFA Club World Cup | OneFootball

FIFA’s decision to revamp the Club World Cup completely and open the doors for more than just continental Champions League winners means, as you’ll have seen in the news, that Rangers are currently in line to appear as a top 8 European side thanks to our stunning endeavours in Europe the past five seasons.

Effectively all the winners still get to book their place, but it’s been expanded to 25 teams, and that will include the top 8 Euro sides who didn’t necessarily win anything, but whose coefficient qualifies them.

Only one club per nation is allowed, which means some giants with bigger coefficients than Rangers will be omitted, such as Barca, Dortmund and unless they win on Saturday, Italy’s Inter.

For all the conspiracy idiots from the east, they have zero case for inclusion. They’ve been mince in Europe for decades and have basically no coefficient at all, and because it’s one club per country, Rangers are miles ahead to be involved.

But it could change still. The coefficients could change, and nudge Rangers out of the top 8 based on next season’s European exploits, it just depends on results Europe-wide and how the coefficient evolves.

Belgium, Croatia and Ukraine are the three countries with sides whose coefficients are the biggest threat to Rangers, so while things look good now, it may change.

The Club World Cup has been a bit of a ‘diddy’ tournament, a borderline friendly cup for a long time, even if it’s marquee sides involved. There’s no massive cred to this tournament, and that’s what FIFA are trying to change a bit. It’s a competition with quite a lot of potential, so this revamp is trying to realise some of that.

And Rangers could well be involved as a just reward for the astonishing stuff we’ve done in Europe the past five years – it was Celtic who benefited from our work by stealing our Champions League spot, so this is one they wouldn’t be able to nick.

But, of course, it’s just a ‘nice bonus’ in the future – in the here and now Rangers’ rebuild is priority and making a good fist towards 56 next season.

Everything else after that will take care of itself.