UEFA Champions League is not just the biggest and the toughest football competition in the world, it is also the biggest cash cow in the world of football, even more than the FIFA World Cup. This season 2017-18, Europe’s football governing body UEFA, has announced the prize money pool for 2017-18 Champions League season earlier this year, of that estimated gross commercial revenue, the total amount available for distribution to participating clubs will be around €1.318 billion. We take a look at distribution of the revenue.
Last year Real Madrid made €89.5 million (€54.2m – performance based revenue and €35.3m – market pool revenue), while the runner ups Juventus made more than the champions, €101.1 million (€51.1m – performance based revenue and $50.6m – market pool revenue).
The reason Juventus made more than the champions, is due to the €58.20 million revenue that they made from the market pool share, that is because only Juventus and AS Roma from Italy played in the group stages and Roma getting knocked out in group stages left Juventus with a higher share.
In addition, of the estimated gross amount of €1.318 billion, around 12% will be used to cover organisational or administrative competition-related costs, and 8.5% allocated to solidarity payments.
Image Credit / Juventus FC
The UEFA Super Cup winners will receive €4m and the runners-ups will receive €3m.
All revenues from ticket sales and hospitality packages for the three finals are centralised and then reallocated to the teams that participate in the finals.
UEFA distributes the Champions League TV Rights money in two different category:
- Fixed Amount (€761.9 million) – Which is distributed to all the teams based on their performances. The group-stage, performance-related and qualification payments combine to make a fixed total of €761.9m
- Market Pool (€507 million) – Which is distributed according to the proportional value of each television market (it fluctuates due to market forces), represented by the teams taking part in the UEFA Champions League (from the group stage onwards), and are split among the different clusters of clubs competing from the same national association.
Let’s take a look at how the share is divided for each club.
UEFA Champions League Fixed Amount Distribution Season 2017/18 – [€761.9 million]
| Group Stage | €12.7m |
| Group Stage Bonus Per Win | €1.5m |
| Group Stage Bonus Per Draw | €500,000 |
| Round of 16 Bonus | €6m |
| Quarter Finals Bonus | €6.5m |
| Semi Finals Bonus | €7.5m |
| Finals Winning Bonus | €15.5m |
| Runner-ups Bonus | €11m |
| Potential Total Per Club | A club could collect, at best, €57.2m, which does not include play-off allocations or market pool share. |
Image Credit / Real Madrid FC
UEFA Champions League Market Pool Amount Distribution Season 2017/18 – [€507 million]
Five influencing factors determine the exact market-pool payment that a team will be entitled to:
- Actual final amount of money in the market pool
- Actual composition of the 2017/18 UEFA Champions League field
- Number of clubs from that team’s association
- These clubs’ respective rankings in the previous season’s domestic championship
- These clubs’ performances in the forthcoming UEFA Champions League.
Here are some scenarios to better understand the ‘Five Influencing Factors’:
- Every national association gets a specific market pool share according to the UEFA Ranking of European Leagues. That revenue share is divided among the clubs that participate in the Champions League. For example: Market Pool share of the clubs in the English Premier League for season 2017/18 was shared between Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham and Liverpool.
- An English Premier League team can potentially earn around €110 million [€55m from fixed amount (performance based) and €55m – €60m from market pool share) if they go all the way and win the Champions League. This system benefits them the most.
- Last season in the Spanish La Liga – The Market Pool share was divided accordingly: Barcelona €24.6 million, Real Madrid €20 million, Atletico €17 million and Real Sociedad €8.5 million.
- If a club based outside of the top 4 European Leagues [England, Spain, Germany and Italy] were to win the Champions League they will earn comparatively less due to the market value of those national associations.
Image Credit / UEFA
What happens when any domestic league champion that does not qualify for the Champions League group stages during the qualifying rounds? Qualifying Rounds Distribution Structure:
- Solidarity Payment: The said domestic champion club will receive a solidarity payment of €260,000 from UEFA, in addition to the amounts due for participation in the play-offs (the payment will only be received to the clubs which do not qualifying for the group stages).
- First Round: €220,000.
- Second Round: €320,000.
- Third Round: €420,000 (eliminated clubs only).
