This season's Champions League has the participation of 36 teams, instead of 32 as before. In addition to the application of a new format from the outside round, the number of matches of the tournament has increased dramatically. The Champions League is still known as the most prestigious tournament in the world, from fame to finance, it always sparkles like stars in the night sky.
When UEFA or FIFA change the format of club and national team tournaments, in addition to expanding the playground, revenue and profit are decisive factors. Therefore, this new version of the Champions League is no exception.
How much do football teams earn with the new format?
Usually, getting tickets to the Champions League has helped teams pocket huge profits. However, the number has never been as large as it is now.
The number of matches this season has increased from 125 to 189. The total prize is 2.47 billion Euros, up 22% over the 2023-2024 campaign. UEFA will divide the money into three parts: one part will be divided equally, depending on the performance and the rest will be divided among teams considered to be pillars of the Champions League.
The draw is worth 18.6 million Euros for each participating team. Then, for each win, the teams will receive an additional 2.1 million Euros/match. If they have a draw, the teams will receive 700,000 Euros/match.
The teams will receive a bonus of 275,000 Euros for their achievements. The team that tops the table after the qualifying round will receive 9.9 million Euros. For example, Celtic will earn 5.225 million Euros if they maintain their 18th place after the qualifying round.
Another good point of the new calculation method is to accumulate "surplus" money after each draw. When a match has a win- lose result in the qualifying round, the winning team will receive 2.1 million Euros. If they draw, each team will receive 0.7 million Euros (residing 0.7 million Euros). The remaining amount will be accumulated to pay to the teams with high to low achievements after the qualifying round ends.
Liverpool will receive 9.9 million Euros if they finish the qualifying round as group winners. They can earn an additional 16.8 million Euros if they win all 8 matches, not to mention an additional 18.6 million Euros in allocated money.
What is the remaining amount?
Certainly entering the round of 16 after the qualifying round ends (Top 8) will help the teams have 2 more coins. First is a payment of 2 million Euros for each team that finishes first to 8th. In addition, each team will receive 11 million Euros for a ticket to the round of 16.
The teams that finish the qualifying round with positions from 9th to 16th will receive 1 million Euros in rankings. After that, they will receive an additional 1 million Euros for the play-off ticket.
Concept of the "pillars" of the Champions League
The teams in this group will have a much larger commercial scale than the other group. The criteria will be divided into 2 parts, European and non-European.
The "European" part is the teams from countries that have made significant contributions to UEFA in terms of commercial value in the last 5 years. Premier League teams are of course in this group because UEFA has continuously sold Champions League rights at high prices in England in recent years. Man City is the team that benefits the most as they are the only team to win the championship in the last 5 years.
The "non-European" part is the teams with high rankings in the UEFA achievement table in the last 10 years. If we consider this criterion, it is easy to understand why Aston Villa earns less than their home teams. Man City and Liverpool have this coefficient higher than the rest of Premier League representatives because they are the 2 teams with the best results in many years. The top teams in these two "pillars" have all earned about 45 million Euros
