Skip to main content

Top clubs do well financially at Club World Cup

The Club World Cup has generated little excitement in the UK and although I watched some of the games on 5, others do not appear to have been broadcast (ok, one can go to DAZN.com).  Financially, it's case of to those that hath shall be given in large part.

A look at the prize money leaders throws up some familiar (some might say obvious) names. Sitting at the top are Manchester City, the only club to exceed $50m so far. Behind them are some of the wealthiest clubs in world football: Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, and on it goes.

Regardless of the order, it’s fairly clear European sides will be taking home most of the spoils. The top eight prize money spots are occupied by European clubs and of the $741m allocated, $424.5m (57 per cent) has gone to UEFA clubs. On average, the 12 competing clubs from football’s richest continent have earned $35.4m apiece this summer. 

The distribution of participation fees ensured Europe’s clubs would always get the biggest slice of the prize. It speaks volumes that Porto and Atletico Madrid were knocked out at the group stage but have earned more than Al Hilal, Inter Miami and Monterrey, who have reached the last 16.

Of the three MLS teams competing, only Inter Miami remain, having generated $21.1m before Sunday’s meeting with Paris Saint-Germain.

This summer’s tournament has offered quite the boon to at least two Brazilian clubs. Flamengo and Palmeiras already lead the revenue stakes back home, but based on the most recent figures, fellow Club World Cup participants Fluminense and Botafogo were sixth and eighth among their domestic rivals. Each of them has earned $26.7m, a huge proportion of their usual revenues.

For Fluminense, it’s over a third of their $74m turnover in 2024. For Botafogo, the boost is even higher; their prize money from the last fortnight is almost half of the $55m they generated across the whole of 2023 (they are yet to publish 2024 financials).

Get past their respective hurdles of Serie A side Inter and domestic rivals Palmeiras, and each will bank a further $13.1m, as will anyone else who makes the quarter-finals.

A huge amount of money has already been divvied up across this summer’s 32 Club World Cup teams, but there’s plenty left to play for. A further $259m will be allocated between now and the competition’s end on July 13.

Comments

  1. Can I ask, how do you think this world club cup will affect the domestic leagues of the various participates? As football has became a money game, especially for those teams in leagues not so awash with it as Europe though some European leagues are dominated by set few.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good question, we will have to see how the competition develops but the indications are that it will boost the financial position of the top European clubs and increase the gap between them and other clubs, e.g., PSG and Bayern Munich will become more dominant in their leagues.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's no deal say Spurs insiders over Taiwanese takeover

Senior figures at Tottenham Hotspur insisted on Friday that they had not been informed of any deal to sell Daniel Levy’s stake in the club. A business group, Eight Sports Capital — which is said to include a billionaire Taiwanese financier — claimed that it had an agreement in place to buy a 24.99 per cent stake in ENIC, the club’s majority owners, from Levy, who owns 29.88 per cent. The Times has been told Ng Wing Fai and Brooklyn Earick form part of the group, having both been linked previously to potential takeovers of the Premier League club. The Taiwanese businessman, Richard Tsai, is also said to be part of the consortium. He is reportedly worth £7 billion.  Last year Earick, the former DJ and tech entrepreneur, was part of an attempted £4.5 billion takeover, which was “unequivocally rejected” by Spurs.  An ENIC spokesperson said: “We can confirm that neither ENIC nor THFC are aware of any sale by Daniel Levy’s Family Trust of its minority stake in ENIC, THFC’...

Spurs CEO attacks luxury training base

The Tottenham Hotspur chief executive Vinai Venkatesham has issued a withering assessment of the way the club was run under Daniel Levy, likening the state-of-the-art training centre to a five-star hotel rather than a centre of high performance.  Venkatesham was appointed to his role in April 2025, having stepped down as chief executive at Arsenal the previous summer. However, he has said that some aspects of the club were “in a significantly worse state” than he expected.  “Our training centre is amazing, one of the best, if not the best in the world,” Venkatesham told BBC Sport. “But when you look around, it looks more like a five-star hotel than it does a performance environment. That will change over the summer. I think there are many areas where the club hasn’t got the right level of expertise.”  He explained that the football side of operations was the club’s main downfall when he arrived last year. [One Spurs fan wryly observed that it was like a water company sayi...

Fulham requires big funding from owner

After lengthy delays, Fulham’s shiny, new Riverside Stand has finally opened, creating “a unique Thameside destination with first class facilities for supporters and partners on match days, as well as for the wider community year-round”. This ambitious project has increased Craven Cottage’s capacity by around 4,000 to 29,600, while it has also taken advantage of the club’s fantastic location and wealthy catchment area by including two Michelin star restaurants, a rooftop swimming pool, corporate hospitality and event space, all benefiting from views of the Thames. Chief executive Alistair Mackintosh observed, “Fulham is the sort of club that can have a business class or first class and have fans that turn left on a plane.” Indeed, there is also an exclusive members club – with a football season ticket as an optional extra. It’s fair to say that “the times they are a-changing”, as this is a long way from the traditional pie and a pint. However, in a world where clubs face the tw...