Qualifying for the Champions League is at the top of the agenda for Europe's biggest clubs and with good reason: the financial rewards are extremely lucrative.
Teams are guaranteed millions for just reaching the group stage and after that, results, as well as television money, dictate what the final prize fund will be at the end of it all.
So how much do the winners of the 2019-20 Champions League get? Goal breaks down the prize money.
How much money do the Champions League winners get?
The winners of the 2020 Champions League final will pocket €19 million (£17m/$22.5m) for the feat, while the runners up are set to receive €15 million (£13.5m/$18m).
However, the overall prize money allocated to the team that wins the Champions League will be much higher than that.
Champions League prize money is distributed based primarily on performance, with teams rewarded for winning matches along the way to the final.
| Position | Prize money |
|---|---|
| Winner | €19 million |
| Runner-up | €15 million |
| Semi-finalist | €12 million |
| Quarter-finalist | €10.5 million |
| Last 16 | €9.5 million |
| Group-stage win | €2.7 million |
| Group-stage draw | €900,000 |
| Qualifying for group stage | €15.25 million |
For example, each team is given €15.25 million (£14m/$18m) for reaching the group stage alone, with each group stage win worth €2.7 million (£2.4m/$3.2m) and a draw earning €900,000 (£800k/$1m).
Reaching the last 16 of the competition is worth €9.5 million (£8.5m/$11m) per club, while progression to the quarter-finals brings in a further €10.5 million (£9.5m/$12.5m) per club.
Each team that reaches the semi-finals pockets an extra €12 million (£11m/$14m).
If a team won every game in the 2019-20 Champions League from the group stage on (10 games, not including qualifying rounds), they would stand to earn a total of €82.45 million (£74m/$98m).
Clubs competing in the Champions League also receive revenue based on the television 'market pool', which fluctuates depending on the number of teams involved in the competition from a particular association.
UEFA's calculation of the 'market pool' money is arrived at through these five factors:
- The actual final amount in the market pool.
- The composition of the field of clubs participating in the 2019-20 UEFA Champions League.
- The number of clubs from any given association competing in the 2019-20 UEFA Champions League.
- The final position of each competing club in their previous season's domestic championship.
- The performance of each club in the 2019-20 UEFA Champions League.
The estimated pot for the 'market pool' was €292 million (£263m/$354m) and the nature of its distribution means that the team which wins the tournament may not necessarily be the most lucratively rewarded.
It remains unclear how this fund will be affected, if at all, by the coronavirus pandemic, but clubs will still be relying heavily on the prize money from this competition, particularly without the revenue of gate receipts.
The prize money for the Champions League is, as you might expect, significantly greater than that available for the Europa League, UEFA's second tier competition.
For example, a win in the Europa League group stage (€570,000) is worth less than a draw in the Champions League group stage (€900,000).
The winners of the Europa League receive €8.5 million, which is less than half of the prize for winning the Champions League.
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