UEFA Champions League 2009/10 Prize Money

By: Daryl | September 16th, 2009

When Michel Platini’s plan for clubs to spend only what they earn take effect, then prize money is going to get extra important. So now’s the time for clubs to start thinking about income, and what better cash cow is there than the the UEFA Champions League?

Jan beat me to this on Bundesliga Offside yesterday, but below is a guide to how much clubs can make in Champions League prize money in 2009/10:

Reaching group stage: €3.8m
Participating in group stage: €550k per match, x6 matches = €3.3m

So that’s €7.1m guaranteed, even if you lose every game 10-0. If you don’t, then it’s…

For a win: €800k
For a draw: €400k

Source: UEFA.com

Then we get to the knockouts, where the big money is up for grabs.

Playing in Round of 16: €3m
Playing in Quarters: €3.3m
Playing in Semis: €4m
Playing in Final: €5.2m
Champions League winners: €9m (plus you get a great big trophy)

Source: Hamburger Abendblatt

So if a team won every single game on the way to winning the whole competition, that club wold collect €36.4m in prize money.

But wait, there’s more. It’s not all about prize money, there’s TV money too, and that’s distributed via something called the market pool. In all there is apparently €1.09 billion (billion!) available in combined prize money and market pool money from the 2009/10 Champions League. And that’s before you factor in ticket sales. Here’s how UEFA puts it:

In addition to these sums, the clubs receive a share of revenue fixed in accordance with the value of the TV market of the country they represent. If an association has more than one representative, the amount received by each club depends on its position in the national championship in the previous
season and the number of matches played in the current season’s Champions League.

So basically, a club’s share of the market pool money is determined by the size of your TV market (ie Germany’s is bigger than Romania’s), where you finished in your domestic league, and how far you go in the competition.

The market pool money usually provides more income than the actual prize money. Look at Jan’s breakdown of how much German clubs earned in the 2008/9 Champions League as an example. Which suggests that – financially at least – a club’s TV market is more important than its results.