Champions League Revenue 2023/24 (after group stage)

Baby, The Stars Shine Bright

A quick update on the TV money earned to date by clubs in the 2023/24 UEFA Champions League after this week’s conclusion of the group stage.

I will go into a bit more detail for the English clubs, explaining how each element is calculated, and also include their earnings for the Europa League and Europa Conference.

Champions League reigns supreme

The Champions League accounts for the lion’s share of UEFA revenue with its €2.032 bln being nearly 3 times as much as the Europa League and Europa Conference combined (€700m).

As a result, Champions League overall prize money is 3.6 times as much as the Europa League and 5.5 times the Europa Conference, but this varies depending on the round. In general, the difference becomes smaller the further a club progresses, e.g. in the last 16 it’s 8x and 16x, while for the winners it’s only 2.3x and 4x.

Distribution Elements

The amount earned from UEFA’s competitions depends on four different elements:

• Participation fee

• Prize money

• UEFA coefficient

• TV pool

However, the percentage split of these four elements varies by competition, e.g. in the Champions League this is made up of participation fee 25%, prize money 30%, UEFA coefficient 30% and TV pool 15%.

In the Champions League the UEFA coefficient is particularly important, covering a hefty 30% of the total payment, compared to only 15% in the Europa League and 10% in the Europa Conference.

Total TV Money

My calculations suggest that four clubs have already earned more than €90m from this season’s Champions League, namely Paris Saint-Germain €99m, Manchester City €96m, Bayern Munich €95m and Real Madrid €93m.

They are closely followed by Barcelona €87m, Atletico Madrid €81m and Arsenal €80m.

All numbers in this analysis can be considered as certain with the exception of the TV pool, which is not known for sure, so has to be estimated. I have assumed this to be in line with the most recent actual payments by UEFA, which are from the 2021/22 season.

Looking at how Champions League revenue is distributed, the importance of the UEFA coefficient is evident with the TV pool being much less significant than it was before. This change has rewarded historically successful clubs rather than those with larger national TV rights deals.