It is the most prestigious club tournament in the world. And the most lucrative. Hence, lifting the 2023 – 2024 Champions League cup is the dream of all football teams and, therefore, of any player. Only a few can boast of the prestige that comes with participating in this competition, which starts this Tuesday, September 19 at 9:00 p.m., with the first day of the group stage. Barça against Antwerp and Atlético de Madrid against Lazio will have a new opportunity today to remove the bad taste from the previous season in their mouths. Real Madrid will have to wait until Wednesday, September 20 to debut against FC Unión Berlin. But, just by participating in it, each club takes home a valuable amount of money. If you win, your income increases exponentially.
The star ball will once again roll on the pitch, after 101 days, when the current champion, Manchester City, faced Inter Milan at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium to fight for the crown, which finally fell in Pep Guardiola’s hands. The Catalan team triumphed in a competition that distributed a total of 2,032 million euros in prizes, both for victories in the group stage and for advanced rounds in the knockout phase. Although, obviously, the further you go, the more money the clubs get, with a special prize for the champion.
However, starting with the 2024 – 2025 season, the Champions League as it is known until now will cease to exist: it will go from 32 to 36 participants. The four new places can be obtained in different ways, since one will be for the Champions Route of the last previous round, another for the third place in the fifth league in the UEFA ranking, which is now France, and the other two for The two federations with the best results in European competitions last year.
How much money do teams earn for playing in the Champions League?
The UEFA Champions League holds the title of being the most prestigious football competition in Europe, but also of offering the best financial results for the teams that participate, since they have the opportunity to fill their coffers with great income. And the body chaired by Aleksander Ceferin distributes 2,032 million euros among the 32 clubs that are part of this edition of the Champions League.
The initial fee is 500.5 million euros in aggregate, and 15.6 million euros will be allocated per club to compete in the group stage. We must also take into account the bonuses for results (600.6 million euros): a compensation system is established for victories, which amounts to 2.8 million euros, to which 930,000 euros are added for a draw. Thus, the Champions League prize table is as follows:
Champion: 20 million euros Runners-up: 15.5 million euros Semi-finals: 12.5 million euros Quarter-finalists: 10.6 million euros Eighth-finals: 9.6 million euros Group stage: 15.64 million euros
How much does the champion of the Champions League 2023 – 2024 earn?
All the clubs participating in this edition of the Champions League ensure income of 15.64 million euros just for playing the first phase. To this bonus we must add 2.8 million euros for each victory and 930,000 euros for each draw. Additionally, the further you advance in the tournament, the larger the jackpot you can get.
The winner of the Champions League receives a prize of 20 million euros, while the team in second place will be awarded 15.5 million euros. Although it must be taken into consideration that this is not the only amount of money they will obtain in the competition, which varies depending on their results.
In the last season with available data, 2021-2022, the champion of the Champions League for the fourteenth time, Real Madrid, became the team that earned the most money, earning 133.7 million euros. UEFA distributed 2,031 million euros that season among the participants, with the European Super Cup included. This represented an increase of 6% compared to the previous year, when it was 1,910 million euros.
