NYON, Switzerland (AP) - Manchester City earned 83.8 million euros ($92.6 million) in Champions League prize money last season to top the table of UEFA payments to clubs.
Although Man City lost in the semifinals to eventual winner Real Madrid, its share of lucrative British television rights lifted it above Madrid’s 80 million euro ($88.4 million) share of the 1.345 billion euro ($1.48 billion) UEFA prize fund.
Juventus was third with 76.2 million euros ($84.2 million). Despite losing in the last 16, the Italian champions got the largest TV rights share of almost 53 million euros ($58.6 million).
The Italian TV rights paid out 112 million euros ($123.7 million) among three clubs, while the Spanish rights paid out only 90 million euros ($99.4 million) shared between five clubs.
Man City’s TV payment was almost 47 million euros ($52 million), from British rights which shared more than 140 million euros ($155 million) among four clubs. In Kazakhstan, the rights were worth less than 1.3 million euros ($1.44 million) to FC Astana.
Of the 32 group-stage teams, Maccabi Tel Aviv’s 16.7 million euro ($18.4 million) share was the lowest.
Clubs got a basic fee of 12 million euros ($13.3 million) for being in the group stage, plus payments of 1.5 million euros ($1.66 million) for each win and 500,000 euros ($553,000) for a draw. An escalating series of fees were then paid for advancing through each knockout round.
Real Madrid earned an extra 15 million euros ($16.6 million) for winning the final, and runner-up Atletico Madrid got 10.5 million euros ($11.6 million). UEFA paid Atletico a total of almost 70 million euros ($77.3 million).
The payments were the first in a three-year cycle of Champions League broadcast and sponsorship deals.
UEFA predicts a 30 percent revenue rise for the 2018-21 seasons. Then, the TV rights money distribution will be changed to reward how far a club progresses in the competition rather than how much its national rights are worth.
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On the web:
https://www.uefa.com//MultimediaFiles/Download/competitions/General/02/41/82/55/2418255_DOWNLOAD.pdf
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