Chelsea need the Champions League to catch up with rivals

Playing European football has benefitted Manchester City and Chelsea over the years.  The past decade has seen the two former Champions League winners collect close to a combined £1.3billion ($1.6bn) in prize money from UEFA and the financial significance of playing in Europe is only climbing.

Deloitte’s Money League, a ranking of football’s wealthiest clubs published this week, detailed that Chelsea’s revenue shrank by seven per cent in 2023-24 after missing out on the Champions League and this term spent in the Europa Conference League cannot hope to plug those broadcast revenue shortfalls.

Chelsea need the Champions League if they are to catch up with rivals. Already hamstrung by the size of Stamford Bridge, which curbs matchday revenues, genuine growth can only come when returning to Europe’s flagship competition. London rivals Arsenal have demonstrated that, pulling well clear in the past 18 months. Arsenal made roughly £100million more in broadcast revenues alone last season.

Chelsea’s ongoing commitment to squad improvement has also created a cost base that needs the Champions League. Although the 2023-24 accounts are yet to be published, Deloitte say Chelsea’s wages accounted for 72 per cent of revenue last season.

This is a high figure in comparison to Premier League rivals and also north of UEFA’s squad cost rule that will limit clubs competing in its competitions to a spend of 70 per cent on transfers, wages and agents fees from next season.

Manchester City have no such concerns, primarily because of revenues that are the envy of the Premier League. They turned over about £713m last season, which was £250m more than Chelsea.  The primary reason? The £114million earned from UEFA in reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

That amounted to 16 per cent of City’s total turnover and it is a pillar in their financial strength they come to depend on. City, on average, have made £105million in prize money in each of the past four seasons, with matchday revenues and commercial interests also enriched along the way.