UEFA announce huge £2.3bn prize fund for teams in European competitions next season

Teams competing in UEFA’s lucrative club competitions next season will share a total prize fund of £2.3billion, European football’s governing body has confirmed.

Like last season, the Champions League, Europa League and Super Cup are estimated to generate almost £3billion in total revenues but UEFA’s costs and ‘solidarity payments’ for clubs that fail to reach the group stages will add up to more than £600million.

As a result, clubs competing in the Champions League and next month’s Super Cup will share more than £1.8billion, with the rest reserved for the Europa League.

Additionally, Liverpool and Chelsea will earn just over £3million each for reaching the Super Cup in Istanbul on August 14, with the winners collecting an extra £900,000. 

Estimating how much the winners of each competition might earn is complicated, as almost half of the prize money is distributed on the basis of a club’s performance in Europe over the last decade and how other clubs from the same country fare.

But if one of Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City or Spurs lift the Champions League trophy in Istanbul next May, they can expect to match the £100million or so the Reds earned last season for winning the competition for a sixth time.

By comparison, a Europa League win in Gdansk next spring would be worth about £35million to Arsenal, Manchester United or Wolves, the same amount Chelsea earned by beating Arsenal in Baku last season.

Working out how much the various clubs from Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales might earn is more complicated, as all of those have qualifying rounds to navigate but also very different 10-year ‘performance coefficients’ and market pools.

However, if Celtic were to reach the fourth round of Champions League play-offs but then lose, missing out on qualification to the group stages, they would receive a guaranteed £4.5million.

Celtic would earn a guaranteed £4.5m for reaching Champions League play-offs fourth round

But if they could get through that round and join the English quartet in the group stages, that is when the big money starts to come as the 32 clubs all get more than £13million in ‘starting fees’, plus £2.4million for a win and £800,000 for a draw.

The prize money in the knock-out rounds ramps up from £8.5million for each club in the last 16, to £9.4million in the last eight, £10.8million in semi-finals, £13.5million in the final and an extra £3.6million to the winner. 

As mentioned, 30 per cent of the prize fund – £525million – is then dished out according to each club’s record in Europe over the last 10 years. This is done by dividing the pot into ‘coefficient shares’, with the top-ranked club, currently Real Madrid, getting 32 of these £1million shares and the 32nd-ranked club receiving one.

Europa League winners Chelsea are England’s best-ranked side in terms of European record

Chelsea are currently England’s best-ranked club in fifth place, with United sixth, Arsenal ninth, Liverpool 12th, City 14th and Spurs 21st. Celtic are the best-ranked Scottish club in 45th.

The market pool allocation represents 15 per cent of the total prize fund but is based on even more variables than the performance coefficients, as each club’s payment depends on how much money domestic broadcasters have paid UEFA for its rights and how far other teams from their country progress.

Payments in the Europa League are based on the same formulas but are worth significantly less than the equivalent Champions League amounts.