When Celtic and Rangers played in the Champions League together for the last time, in 22–23, Celtic made over €30 million from their participation, while Rangers only made about €20 million, even though Celtic only scored two points more than Rangers’ zero.
This was caused by the way the funds were distributed using the 10-year coefficient; Rangers, with the second lowest ranking in the tournament, received only €2.3 million, while Celtic, with the eighth-lowest ranking, received an incredible €9.1 million. If both teams qualify for the new 36-team league phase the following season, then this distribution will be significantly different, as UEFA has announced their budget for 2024–25 – after successfully having its member associations sign off on it. It appears that we are preparing for the first real title race between the Old Firm in the Scottish Premiership since season 2010/11, when Rangers prevailed in the league.
Naturally, the fans of both teams are more excited about the status and glory of winning the league trophy than they are about the money their club will make. Nonetheless, it is impossible to overestimate the financial significance of earning a spot in the Champions League automatically upon winning the championship, especially with the new structure guaranteeing more money than ever before. Our best teams rely significantly on Champions League status to close the financial gap with most other European Leagues, since Southampton received over £100 million in TV money for finishing last in the Premier League.
Celtic has long been an extremely financially sound club, with £72 million in cash on hand, more than nearly all English Premier League teams. Nevertheless, Peter Lawwell stated in the Celtic annual reports that “history tells us that we will not always qualify for the Champions League,” demonstrating that even they are well aware of the consequences of missing out on the Champions League.
With UEFA revealing their conservative estimate for total revenue from men’s club competitions at €4.5 billion (up from €3.5 billion this year), we now have a better idea of just how much the impact of qualification will be. However, they do note that these figures should be treated cautiously because “the sales process still ongoing and contracts yet to be concluded for some important markets.”
The €4.5 billion will not go to all of the competing clubs because there are a number of deductions that need to be made first. For instance, UEFA’s share increases, going from €323 million to €387 million in organisational costs, and the amount “reserved for European Football to remain with UEFA” goes from €188 million to €230 million.
First, good news for all Scottish clubs: clubs that are eliminated in the qualifying round will get a 25% increase in funding, from €105 million to €132 million. The solidarity payments, which are given to EVERY club that doesn’t play football during the league phase, increase by a whopping 120%, from €140 million to €308 million. This could imply up to £1.5 million for each SPFL team that misses out on the European League stage the following year.
That still leaves a whopping €3.3 billion up for grabs by the rival teams, with Champions League teams taking home an incredible 75% of the money and the Europa League getting just 17%. The Conference League receives a meagre 8% of the total, which is mere crumbs.
Each competition’s prize money is distributed among participating clubs in three ways:
- beginning payout (which is the same for every club in the league)
- Payment based on performance (money gained for each group stage point and for advancing through the competition)
- and finally, the recently created “value” stream, which was created by combining the streams from the prior 10-year coefficient + TV market pool.
Initially, the beginning fee—a sum of money distributed equally among all teams prior to the ball being kicked—is predicted to increase by 20% in the Champions League, from €15.64 million to €18.84 million per club. When compared to the expected starting cost for the Europa League, which goes from only €3.63 million to €4.31 million, the Conference league starting fee increases the least, from €2.94 million to about €3.16 million.
The second stream, the performance-related fixed amount, will see the largest overall increase in the Champions League, going up by 54%. However, in spite of this enormous increase, the amount per group stage win for each club will actually go down, as there will be 144 group stage matches instead of 96, meaning that a win will now be worth €2.1 million and a draw €0.7 million, but each club will have eight matches instead of six to try and put money on the board.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport in Italy, each and every Champions League team will get an extra payout based on their standing in the 36-team competition. €2 million is anticipated for places 1 through 8, with an additional €1 million going to places 9 through 36. In addition, a payment of between €1 million and €10 million is allegedly associated with the clubs’ “placement in national championships.” In essence, even in the event that they finish last with zero points, that raises the starting payment to more than €20 million per club. Rangers won’t get any less than that for making it to the Europa League final, and there will be other distribution streams.
The new “value” stream, which comes in last among the three, will be given less weighting this year (35%) in order to reduce the incentive for past success and a nation’s TV market. According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, it will comprise a sophisticated ranking system for the 36 teams that takes into account both the national market pool and each club’s coefficient during the previous five years.
Rangers’ guaranteed earnings could significantly exceed Celtic’s, as they can realistically expect to be in the top half of this ranking methodology and so could receive anywhere between €10-20m, whereas Celtic would be lower down this ranking and so expect to earn somewhere around €5m. This is especially good news for Rangers, who should end this season at least 26th in the five-year coefficient, whereas rivals Celtic will end no higher than 69th.
Notably, Rangers will be placed higher than Celtic in the 10-year coefficient for the first time in more than ten years this season.
The top team will now only receive €10 million, while the bottom team will only receive €300,000, thus this 10-year coefficient feature will be significantly decreased. As a result, it will probably just be worth a few million euros to either club. Thus, our teams will probably bank between €25 and €40 million before a game is played. If they managed to advance to the round of 16, you can add an additional €20 million to that amount.
This is only the money that is directly received by UEFA; participating in the Champions League as opposed to the Europa League has an effect on all other revenue streams as well. For instance, Celtic’s participation in the Europa League in 21/22 and the Champions League the following season resulted in an increase in matchday revenue of £8 million and in commercial income of £6 million, respectively, and an overall turnover gain of £32 million, from £88 million to £120 million.
The chances for Celtic or Rangers to be more competitive in Europe’s top competition have increased since only one third of the 36 teams are eliminated after the league phase, as opposed to the current 50%. Additionally, our teams play two games against Pot 4 sides instead of Celtic’s zero games this season.
Read more news on….https://sportupdates.co.uk
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