The dream of winning ‘la orejona’ is closer for four European football teams. In this edition, there will be a new winner of the UEFA Champions League, since the current champion, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, was eliminated in the quarterfinals against the biggest winner of this competition, Real Madrid. Known as the ‘King of Cups’ for the fourteen titles he has accumulated in the Champions League, he is the only Spanish representative to ‘sneak’ into the semi-finals of the tournament after Barcelona and Atlético de Madrid were eliminated in this round. An achievement that will be rewarded by UEFA, since PSG, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and the ‘white’ team receive a million-dollar prize to rise against their rivals and fight for a place in the final.
On their way to achieving the dream of winning the title of ‘European champions’, football clubs receive different amounts of money from UEFA just for participating. In less than two weeks, the Stars’ ball will roll on the field again. A new team seeks to win the title, in two crossings that are expected to be frenetic. Bayern will face Real Madrid on April 30 and the second leg will be played at the Santiago Bernabéu on May 8. For their part, Dortmund and PSG will first face Germany on May 1 and the final match will be played at the Parc des Princes, on the 7th just a week later.
Winning the UEFA Champions League is the dream of all the great European teams, some to expand their legend and others to win it for the first time, like PSG and Dortmund. In addition to being one of the clubs that have won the mythical ‘orejona’, the competition distributes 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.
