CA Osasuna leaves behind an outstanding season at the sporting level, where they came close to the feat after being defeated by Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final and achieved seventh place, awarded with a European ticket to play in the Conference League. However, UEFA has cut short the return of the ‘rojillos’ to European football 16 years after their last adventure on the Old Continent.
The UEFA Appeals Committee has communicated the exclusion of the Navarrese club after reaffirming the initial opinion of the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Committee, where it was obtained not to admit Osasuna in the next edition of the Conference due to the corruption case that splashed the board that ran the Pamplona club nine years ago. Osasuna’s reaction to the decision has been immediate. The club considers “a serious violation of their rights” that it will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
OFFICIAL RELEASE | The UEFA Appeals Committee leaves Osasuna out of the 2023-2024 Conference League.
— CA OSASUNA (@Osasuna) July 4, 2023
Beyond the sporting impact
At a sporting level, the ‘bump’ of UEFA deprives the Navarrese entity of playing a continental competition, which it had agreed to on its own merits on the pitch, and puts an end to the illusion that it had generated among the fans’ rojilla’ this season with the European ‘extra’. But at an economic level, what is the impact for Osasuna of not playing in the Conference?
If they go ahead with their participation, Osasuna will have to overcome a preliminary knockout round, which boasts a prize of 550,000 euros, to which 2.94 million will be added for qualifying for the phase. From then on, the prize pool inflates as the club advances in the competition until it opts for a final prize, in fixed terms of 12.39 million euros.
round of 32 300,000 euros 600,000 euros Quarterfinals. 1,000,000 euros 2,000,000 euros 3,000,000 euros Winner. 5,000,000 euros
To this amount should be added the variables that UEFA governs for this competition. The institution distributes 500,000 euros for a victory and 166,000 euros for a tie. On the other hand, UEFA distributes from 44,500 euros to 1.42 million by coefficient – the ranking used to classify the teams their historical performance in European competitions – and allocates an amount of money to each country, which is distributed among the participating teams based on their value as a television market, through a system known as ‘market pool’.
