Football
Arsenal Could Earn Up to £29 MILLION More Than Tottenham in European Group Stages This Season
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Get to know Charlie Rhodes betterPublished6 hours ago on September 19, 2024
It is no secret that Champions League revenue can be transformative for a club’s financial situation, but the difference in renumeration between Europe’s elite club competition and its second tier is staggering.
For the purposes of this article, we thought it best to try and contextualise just how important revenue from European tournaments are, but also the disparity between the tiers of UEFA competition.
Unfortunately for Tottenham fans, the role they will play in this contextualisation is that of a club considerably worse off than their North London counterparts – Arsenal.
How Much Money Do Teams in the Champions League Receive?
Taking only the distribution figures published by UEFA themselves in line with the new Champions League format, clubs featured this year can expect to receive €18.62m just for qualifying.
Taking Arsenal – who get their campaign underway in Bergamot against Atalanta on Thursday – as the example. Three points in Italy would bank them €2.1m, which also goes for any of their remaining seven group stage games.
That means the Gunners could receive up to €16.8m in win bonuses, should they do the unthinkable and register a 100% win record in the first round.
It is worth noting that Champions League sides also earn €700,000 for a draw; this is €250,000 more than teams in the Europa League get for winning a game, and €100,000 more than the bonus for finishing in the top eight.
For context, Champions League teams who achieve a top eight finish can stand to make €2m on top of their performance bonuses, while those from positions nine to 18 still receive €1m.
Therefore, our exemplar team Arsenal could stand to make up to €37,420,000 just from the group stages alone.
Champions League Revenue 2024/25
- €18.62m in equal share starting fees
- €2.1m per group stage victory
- €700,000 per group stage draw
- €2m bonus for 1-8 finishers
- €1m bonus for 9-18 finishers
How Much Money Do Teams in the Europa League Receive?
As promised, Tottenham will be the focus of our Europa League comparison in order to show just how much they missed out on by falling behind the Champions League spots last season.
Spurs get their Europa League journey underway next week against Qarabag, and a win would ensure they kick off the campaign with a cool €450,000 win bonus.
A draw would cut that bonus down to just €150,000.
These performance bonuses will add to the €4.31m they received for qualifying, and the hope is that by finishing in spots one-t0-eight they can bank an extra €600,000.
There is a possibility to earn a maximum of €8,510,000 just from the group stage – nearly €30m less than Arsenal could stand to earn.
Europa League Revenue 2024/25
- €4.31m in equal share starting fees
- €450,000 per group stage victory
- €150,000 per group stage draw
- €600,000 bonus for 1-8 finishers
- €300,000 bonus for 9-18 finishers
What About Champions League Broadcast Revenue?
Broadcast revenue made up around 15% of the money clubs received in the Champions League last season.
There is a new, albeit complicated structure in place to determine just how much teams receive this season.
The new value pillar is a combination of the former market pool (country market value) and coefficient (individual club coefficients) pillars. The value pillar comprises two parts:
– European part
– Non-European part
As UEFA state in their distribution report, “The amounts allocated to the two parts will be proportional to the actual outcome of the media rights sales for that competition in UEFA markets (European part) and all other markets (non-European part).
“The ratio between the European part and the non-European part will be based on the contracts concluded with media markets for the whole cycle by 1 July 2024.”
For context, Arsenal received around €80m in TV revenue following the conclusion of the group stages last season – a figure that will likely continue to rise given the revamp of the tournament.
The highest earners were PSG in 2023/24 after pocketing €99m, while the lowest earners Antwerp were still the beneficiaries of €22m, according to football finance expert Swiss Ramble.