It has been a few weeks now since I wrote my article on the Ibrox accounts.

That piece was supposed to be published, and it still has not been, largely because it is a dense, complicated 4,000-word article which needs a lot of work and, frankly, I just have not found the motivation to sit down and start number-crunching again.

But there was nothing in that article which should take any of our own number bods by surprise. I am quite sure I am not the only person who has done the maths and looked at what this season is likely to have cost them.

We are talking about tens of millions. And that, of course, is a problem.

It never ceases to amaze me how far behind its own arse the Scottish sports media can sometimes be, and that has been obvious over the last few days, particularly in the articles now appearing about how much money the Ibrox club has made from Europe compared with the other Scottish clubs involved in UEFA competition.

The remarkable thing is that almost every Scottish club which has appeared in Europe this season is set to make more from UEFA payments than they are. Motherwell, Hearts and Celtic are all on course to bring in larger sums from their European campaigns.

That matters, because when you put those figures alongside what the Ibrox club has spent in pursuit of success this season, the financial picture starts to look very different from the one parts of the media are only now beginning to notice.

That is why I was amused by the stories today.

It is not exactly breaking news to some of us that the Ibrox club is not going to make much money from this European campaign. They are out before the league phase has even properly begun, and financially that is a disaster.

But as usual, the media is reporting the fact of it and reporting the numbers while largely ignoring the wider implications.

And those implications are many, they are also huge.

Because once you move beyond the simple question of what UEFA will pay them and start looking at what they have spent, what they have committed to, what revenue they have missed out on and what that means for the rest of the season, the real story becomes much bigger.

It is all very well for the media to talk about the immediate impact and about how other Scottish clubs will earn more than the Ibrox club from this European cycle.

But financial sustainability regulations operate over a multi-year period, and that is where the wider problem begins.

They have spent heavily across that cycle, and their current ownership has committed enormous sums over the last few seasons, with the bulk of that expenditure coming in the most recent campaigns.

This season, however, they are facing virtually no meaningful European income at all.

Once you factor in the financial hit of playing a Scottish Cup tie behind closed doors, the implications become much bigger than one disappointing set of UEFA payments.

They bleed into next season.

Quite possibly the season after that as well.

Because the team which finishes second in the SPFL this year, if it does not win the Scottish Cup, goes into Europa Conference League qualifying.

Three rounds.

And elimination at any stage means elimination from Europe altogether.

Even if you get through those qualifiers, the financial take from the Conference League is still modest compared with the Europa League, never mind the Champions League.

Everything about that competition is smaller.

The appearance money is lower. The television distribution is lower. The performance payments are lower. The ranking-related rewards are lower.

So in strictly financial terms, the drop from Europa League level to Conference League level is substantial.

And that is before you factor in the fact that, this season, they have been knocked out of Europe altogether.

That leaves a very significant hole in the balance sheet.

But the real problem is not simply that directors and executives may have to carry losses again this year.

It is that FSR works across a rolling multi-year cycle.

That means what happens now constrains what they can do next season.

Potentially the season after that as well.

And if they end up in the Conference League next year rather than the Europa League, then the weaker revenues from that competition feed into the calculation for another cycle.

Lose the league again after that, and the consequences stretch even further.

This is the part the media is not really explaining.

It is perfectly happy to tell you that Hearts or Motherwell might earn more from Europe than the Ibrox club this season.

But that figure only becomes meaningful once you put it against the scale of the operation.

Hearts and Motherwell, by virtue of qualifying for Europe at all, have done reasonably well financially relative to their own cost base.

The Ibrox club is different.

When a club operating with costs somewhere around the £90 million mark is earning less from Europe than Hearts, that is the story.

And the implications of that are the story.

Because saying Hearts made £4 million while the Ibrox club made £2 million, or whatever the final figures turn out to be, tells you very little on its own.

You need to understand that Hearts’ running costs are a fraction of those at Ibrox.

Those costs still have to be met.

They have to be met whether the club is in the Champions League, the Europa League, the Conference League or not playing European football at all.

The wages still have to be paid. The transfer instalments still have to be paid. The stadium still has to operate. The football department still has to be funded.

Those costs do not magically shrink because UEFA revenue has disappeared.

That is why this is potentially a multi-year problem.

We are talking about a situation where, simply to bring the numbers back under control and remain within financial sustainability regulations, they may have to cut their current spending substantially.

And depending on which European competition they qualify for next season, that problem does not necessarily disappear after one year.

It can roll straight into the next cycle.

That is what makes this much bigger than one set of UEFA numbers.

The media loves to report the headline figure because the headline figure is easy.

Hearts earned more. Motherwell earned more. Celtic earned more.

But what does that actually mean for a club with a huge cost base, heavy recent spending and no meaningful European income this season?

That is the question worth asking.

That is the question which affects next summer.

It affects recruitment. It affects wage spending. It affects how much financial room the club has. And depending on what happens next season, it may affect the season after that too.

Those are the real implications.

Anything else is just trivia dressed up as financial reporting.

And if the media is going to publish the numbers without explaining what they actually mean, then what exactly is the point?

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