Rich clubs are in the European money

From his Zurich base the authoritative Swiss Ramble reviews how clubs have done so far in this season’s Uefa competitions.   Much more detail about clubs and calculations can be found on his Substack page.

Eight of the top ten in money terms also featured in the top ten of the Deloitte Money League, while another one (Inter) was 11th in the so-called “Rich List”.  The only club that spoiled the strong correlation between money and success on the downside was Manchester United, which highlights the extent of the mismanagement at Old Trafford.

His calculations suggest that five clubs have already received more than €90m from the Champions League, namely Bayern Munich €100m, Manchester City €97m, Liverpool €97m, Arsenal €96m and Chelsea €92m.  They are closely followed by Barcelona €89m, Tottenham €84m, Paris Saint-Germain €82m and Real Madrid €81m.

Revenue available for distribution in the Europa League is less than a quarter of the Champions League, which has impacted the earnings of its clubs accordingly.   Nevertheless, five clubs have earned more than €20m to date, namely Roma €22.1m, Olympique Lyonnais €22.0m, Aston Villa €21.5m, Porto €20.9m and Real Betis €20.7m.  

Crystal Palace, has accrued €8.7m.  Crystal Palace’s demotion to the Conference League, due to their issues with UEFA’s multi-club ownership rules, has cost them dearly. If they won the trophy, this would be worth €20m (£17m), which is not too shabby, but is only around half of the potential earnings in the Europa League.

Although not openly stated, it’s reasonably clear to most observers that the UEFA coefficient was originally brought in to placate the larger clubs, who had frequently threatened to abandon UEFA’s competitions for some form of super league, as it rewarded historical performance, which obviously benefited the “big boys”.

There have been a few comments that this has been addressed by the introduction of the new value pillar, but, as we have seen, this is still likely to favour the leading clubs, as the allocation is partly driven by the UEFA 5-year and 10-year coefficients, as well as TV rights, which are logically higher for the “Big Five” leagues.

City versus Newcastle

This summary once again underlines the fact that the value pillar still rewards the leading clubs, while dampening money for the newer arrivals. This helps explain why Manchester City €97m earned so much more than Newcastle United’s €54m.

Both clubs received the same participation fee of €18.6m, while City’s prize money is (currently) €13.6m higher, largely because they have already reached the last 16, while Newcastle still need to get past the knockout round.  However, the real distinguishing factor was the value pillar, where City’s €45.4m is almost three times as much as Newcastle’s €16.3m.

it is no great surprise that England has received most money from the Champions League with €521m, followed by the other four members of the “Big Five” leagues, namely Spain €324m, Germany €288m, Italy €243m and France €191m.

The financial damage to Real Madrid arising from losing to Jose Mourinho’s Benfica in the last game was not that bad, especially as it will be boosted by another €11m if they win their tie in the knockout round.

Spanish clubs have been adversely impacted by the new distribution methodology, as their TV deal is only fourth highest in Europe (at least based on the latest available distributions), though this has been somewhat mitigated by their strong record in UEFA competitions.

North of the border

Scotland did not have any clubs in the league phase of the Champions League, as Celtic and Rangers were both eliminated in the play-offs. However, the bitter pill of missing out on this lucrative tournament was slightly sweetened for the two Glasgow clubs, as they received €4.3m for going out at this stage.

Interestingly, even though Celtic qualified for the Europa League knockout round, while Rangers missed out, their €13.4m earnings were slightly lower than their rivals’ €13.7m. This was driven by the value pillar, specifically the element relating to UEFA coefficients: 5 years – Rangers 25th vs. Celtic 59th; 10 years – Rangers 38th vs. Celtic 53rd.

Aberdeen secured €5.1m from the Conference League, even though they finished second bottom of the league phase.     

Following the move to the expanded format, the money available for distribution has significantly increased by around 20%. This is obviously good news, though the juiciest cuts have gone to the leading clubs, while the gap to those who do not have a place in Europe’s premier tournament has only widened.    In fact, only one of the top 18 earning clubs is from outside the Big Five leagues, further reinforcing the position of the elite.