CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2021/22
How much money do European teams make for advancing to Champions League knockout stage?
The 32 clubs in the 2021/22 Champions League group stage will soon be cut to 16, all looking to earn as much prize money as possible from their efforts.
Some clubs are already confirmed into the 2021/22 UEFA Champions League knock-out phase, while others will be decided over the final two group stage games. And for who go all the way to lifting the trophy in the final, a maximum of just over 85 million euros ($95 million) can be added to the club's coffers.
The teams got their group stage going mid-September, knowing that there was a total prize fund of 1.1bn euros available for distribution among the 32 sides in this season’s edition of Europe’s elite club competition.
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2021/22 Champions League prize money: how it breaks down
Teams earn money for positive group-stage results and for every round of the tournament they negotiate - and if a club wins every group match and goes on to lift the trophy in St Petersburg next May, they will net a total of 85.1m euros ($95.76m), up from the previous maximum of 82.5m.
This year’s Champions League prize money breaks down as follows:
2021/22 UCL prize-money per round:
- 15.64m euros for qualifying for the group stage
2021/22 UCL prize-money per round:
- 2.8m euros per group-stage win, 930,000 euros per group-stage draw
2021/22 UCL prize-money per round:
- 9.6m euros for qualifying for the last 16
2021/22 UCL prize-money per round:
- 10.6m euros for qualifying for the quarter-finals
2021/22 UCL prize-money per round:
- 12.5m euros for qualifying for the semi-finals
2021/22 UCL prize-money per round:
- 15.5m euros for qualifying for the final
2021/22 UCL prize-money per round:
- 4.5m euros for winning the final
In addition to the potential prize money directly related to the Champions League performances, the tournament winners also stand to receive 3.5m euros ($3.9m) for qualifying for the UEFA Super Cup, and another 1m euros ($1.3) if they win the European football season’s curtain-raiser, which is to be held in Helsinki in August 2022.
Additional Champions League money
Prize money is not the only source of Champions League revenue for the 32 clubs, who will also pocket TV income, and payments based on their ranking in the European game.
Coefficient-based payments
According to UEFA, 600.6m euros ($675.86m) in what it calls 'coefficient-based amounts' is to be distributed among this season’s Champions League clubs.
As part of this payment system, the clubs are ranked in order of the UEFA coefficient points they have accrued for their performance in Europe over the last 10 years, with 1.137m euros given to the club with the fewest points. Another 1.137m euros is then added to that amount per rank, up to a top fee of 36.38m euros.
Real Madrid currently lead UEFA’s coefficient table ahead of Bayern Munich, Barcelona, the current holders, Chelsea, and Atlético Madrid in fifth. You can take a look at the full ranking here.
TV revenue
UEFA says a total of 300.3m euros ($337.93m) in TV money is to be shared out among the Champions League clubs in 2021/22, with each country given a certain amount to distribute among its representatives, depending on the value of that nation’s TV market.
How much of that figure the clubs in every market then get not only depends on how far each of the country’s sides progress in the Champions League, but also where they finished in their domestic league in the previous campaign.
It is also impacted by how many clubs the country has in the Champions League: for example, runners-up Paris Saint-Germain are thought to have got a bigger broadcasting pay-out than winners Bayern Munich in 2019/20, in part because they only had to share France's TV money with two other clubs, rather than three.
Champions League money deductions
Because of the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic, UEFA is to deduct some of the 2.732 billion euros ($3.07bn) in total that it plans to distribute among the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League clubs in the 2021/22 season.
This stems from the 2019/20 campaign, when UEFA revenue from European club competitions was 416.5m euros lower than anticipated because of the coronavirus pandemic. The amount of money the body agrees to share out each season is directly linked to the income it expects to bring in from its tournaments, but rather than paying out less that year, UEFA opted to recoup a portion of its revenue shortfall over the next four seasons, up to 2023/24.
This term, UEFA says it is to deduct a total of 83.3m euros from the money it distributes across its three men's club tournaments, “in proportional amounts per competition and in proportion to each individual club’s income”.