The Scottish Professional Football League could earn a £1m+ bonus if Rangers finish in the play-offs for a place in the Premiership at the end of this season.

The Scottish Professional Football League could earn a £1m+ bonus if Rangers finish in the play-offs for a place in the Premiership at the end of this season.

The body, created in the summer of 2013, established rule C26 which it to 50% of the gate money from play-off games for a top-flight place, within seven days of the game being played.

Should Rangers finish second in the Championship, they would have home and away against the side that wins the meeting of the third and fourth-placed teams and, if successful, another two-legged tie against the side that finishes second bottom in the Premiership.

Half of the gate money from two prospective 50,000 crowds would go to the SPFL, rather than the home teams keeping the full amount. That would see their coffers boosted as opposed to Rangers, who like the other clubs in the SPFL, usually keep the full amount of gate money. Should the Ibrox side finish in third or fourth place another tranche of money would require to be handed over from the first round of play-off games which could take the total to over £1.5Million Queen of the South, Falkirk, Hamilton Academical and Hibernian were 'victims' of the rule last season but the biggest gate was the 18,031 at Easter Road when Accies relegated the Edinburgh side. The other 5 games in the play-offs had an average of just over 4,100 fans at them with a source at one the clubs involved saying: "We tried to raise the issues surrounding this rule last season however no-one was really interested. It will be interesting to see what the reaction will be if the funds involved become far more substantial."