How much money does Real Madrid get for being LaLiga champion?

Real Madrid are LaLiga Champions 2021/22 but winning the title itself doesn’t bring in a cash prize for the team that wins Spain’s domestic soccer league. Unlike what happens in Europe’s biggest club tournament, the Champions League, where there are cash amounts specified for each round a team advances in the competition with an amount for the eventual champion, in LaLiga, the teams are - in principal - competing for the honour of being the champions of Spain.

Cash for winning LaLiga

While there is no direct payout for lifting the LaLiga title, winning the title does have a financial reward. Although the competition rules do not provide for prizes based on final position in the league table, since 2015-16 and the centralised sale of TV rights to the competition, the TV money has been divided up to some extent taking into account the clubs’ performances, meaning a difference of potentially millions depending on where a team ends up. What’s more, 7.5% of the prize money team receive for participating in the Champions League is based on the classification in LaLiga the previous season. Taking together both concepts, Real Madrid stands to bank some $80 million (€66 million) for lifting the title.

TV rights money for winning LaLiga

The major part of that cash comes from the TV rights for LaLiga, which in total come to a prudent estimate of some $1.7 billion (€1.4 billion). Of that 50% is distributed equally between the teams, 25% is dedicated to community projects for the clubs (known as social insertion, being for help with stadiums and support for fans among other things) and the final 25% is divided between the clubs based on their position in LaLiga. The champions take 17% of that amount, which is 4.25% of the total TV rights. In total, once amounts have been deducted for support of amateur soccer and other sports in Spain, that means Real Madrid will bank nearly $64 million for winning LaLiga - although it’s true the other teams will all pick up sums, albeit lower, for having taken part in the competition.

Real Madrid’s income from the Champions League

The second main source of income for Real Madrid from winning LaLiga comes from what’s called the Market Pool in the Champions League. The pool is composed of 15% of the total $2.4 billion in prize money paid out by the tournament, and is designed to pay out to clubs in the competition based on the commercial value of each club’s country to the tournament. The Spanish clubs share, on a prudent estimation, some $35 million.

That money is then shared out based on two criteria: half based on the games played by each team in the relevant edition of the Champions League and the other half based on the league position of the team in the previous edition of that league. Of the part based on league position, 40% goes to the Champions, 30% the runners-up, 20% to the third-placed team, and 10% for the fourth-placed team. (If a team fails to place in the top four in LaLiga but qualifies for the Champions League by way of winning either the Champions League or the Europa League in the previous season they will not share in this pool, as happened to Villarreal this season).

Real Madrid will pick up nearly $14 million as LaLiga Champions from the Champions League market pool, some four million more than the runners up on $10 million.

Add it all up and Real Madrid effectively directly wins $80 million for triumphing in LaLiga.