The winner between Real Madrid and Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League 2021-22 final will have the chance to earn as much as €60 million in prize money when they face off in the ultimate showdown on May 29.
This UCL prize money includes earnings from the previous rounds and the €4.5 million reserved for the champions. However, it does not include the coefficient-based payments and TV money that teams rake in separately.
Before the competition began, UEFA allotted several condition-based payments across all of their three European club competitions including the Champions League itself, UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Europa Conference League.
UEFA Champions League prize money
The UEFA Champions League prize pot stands at a whopping €1.95 billion, which is distributed among all participants.
Here is the brief bifurcation of the prize.
- 25 per cent (€488m) is allotted as guaranteed payments to the teams who qualified for the Champions League.
- 30 per cent is the performance-based amount which totals to €585m.
- 15 per cent is the variable amount like the TV rights, which is somewhere around €292m.
- Finally, 30 per cent distribution is done on the basis of ten-year performance-based coefficient rankings, translating it to €585m.
Interestingly, teams that participated even in the qualifying rounds started getting the prize before the tournament began. Those who lost in the playoff rounds were awarded €5 million each.
Furthermore, there was a detailed distribution for those who lost out in the preliminary rounds too.
Preliminary round: €230,000 to each losing club
First qualifying round: €300,000 to each losing club
Second qualifying round: €400,000 to each losing club
Third Qualifying stage: €500,000 to each losing club
Playoff: €5 million each for 10 teams losing in the playoffs
UEFA Champions League prize money for qualifiers
The 32 teams that qualified for the competition took home €15.64 million each. From there on, it was all about the performance, further qualification and more. The details are as follows:
Qualification for group stage: €15.64 million
Prize per win: €2.8million
Prize per draw: €0.93m
UEFA Champions League prize money for knockout rounds
Upon qualifying for the last 16, the teams receive as much as €9.6 million and the money keeps increasing from there on. Here is the comprehensive partition:
Last 16 qualification: €9.6 million
Quarter-final qualification: €10.6 million
Semi-final qualification: €12.5million
Final qualification: €15.5million
Winner of the final: €4.5million
What is the UEFA Champions League 2021-22 winner’s prize money?
The prize money for the winner of the UEFA Champions League 2021-22 final can go upto €60 million depending on their results in the previous rounds, including the group stage games. The prize for winning the final is €4.5 million.
On top of that, €3.5 million is allotted for the qualification for the European Super Cup and upon winning, the team will receive a further €1 million in prize money.
UEFA Champions League 2021-22 television money
Apart from the aforementioned distribution, UEFA also shares the money accumulated from the television deals. For that, a sum amount of €300.3 million has been set aside, but the distribution is only done according to the value of that nation’s TV market.
It’s important to note that this fee is also affected by the number of teams each country has in the competition and where they finished in their domestic league in the previous campaign.
Featured photo: AFP / Fabrice Coffrini
