GENEVA (AP) - Beaten finalist Juventus topped the Champions League prize money table in receiving 110.4 million euros ($130.4 million) from UEFA last season.
Leicester edged title-winning Real Madrid for second place in the list UEFA published on Friday because the English champion banked a bigger share of broadcasting rights money.
British and Italian TV deals were more valuable than the Spanish rights, and were shared between fewer clubs than Spain’s five in the competition.
Leicester, which was eliminated in the quarterfinals, got almost 81.7 million euros ($96.5 million) from UEFA and Madrid earned just over 81 million euros ($95.7 million).
Of 32 group-stage teams, Basel’s 16.3 million euros ($19.3 million) was the lowest share of almost 1.4 billion euros ($1.65 billion) in the UEFA prize fund.
Europa League winner Manchester United topped the second-tier competition’s money table with 44.5 million euros ($52.6 million), more than double any other club. The Europa League prize fund was 423 million euros ($500 million).
United’s share barely beat the lowest-earning English club in the Champions League, Tottenham, which did not advance from the group stage. However, the London club also played briefly in the Europa League and so banked almost 46 million euros ($54 million) in total.
UEFA awarded a basic fee of 12.7 million euros ($15 million) to each of the 32 Champions League teams, plus bonuses for results and a share of TV rights money known as the market pool. That complex formula gave clubs a share of broadcast deals covering their home country and allowed domestic champions to earn more than second- to fourth-place teams.
UEFA and the European Club Association have agreed on a new cash distribution model for the 2018-21 seasons when revenues are expected to rise significantly.
The new formula will better reward teams that advance deeper into the competition, and is weighted to favor clubs that won European titles since UEFA launched club competitions in 1955.
The UEFA-ECA deal also guarantees four Champions League group-stage places to the four most successful leagues - Spain, England, Germany and Italy.
It means Juventus - which also topped the 2013 prize money list as a quarterfinalist - likely needs to win the title to repeat atop the table from next season.
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Online: https://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/competitions/General/02/51/12/21/2511221_DOWNLOAD.pdf
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