

Real Madrid’s latest Champions League triumph earned the Spanish club €138.8m (£116.4m; $154m) in prize money last season, according to new figures published by UEFA.
European football’s governing body has released its annual financial report this morning to coincide with its 49th Congress beginning in Belgrade and included are the figures distributed to each team competing in UEFA’s three club competitions during the 2023-24 season.
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Madrid’s 15th title, secured when beating Borussia Dortmund in last May’s final at Wembley Stadium, delivered them a new record windfall from the Champions League.
The €138.8m earned during last season was almost €4m more than when Manchester City won the crown in 2022-23 and helped to push Real Madrid’s annual turnover through the €1billion mark for the first time.
Paris Saint-Germain, beaten at the semi-final stage, were next on the Champions League’s distribution list with €124.4m, while Dortmund’s run to the final was worth €120.7m.
Manchester City were again the highest-earning Premier League team in the Champions League, netting €110.4m. Arsenal’s return to the showpiece competition was worth €94m, while Manchester United, who failed to progress beyond the group stages last season, brought in €60.7m.
Newcastle United’s first Champions League in two decades was another campaign that ended before the knockout stages but their low UEFA coefficient, a ranking based on previous seasons in European football, ensured their total prize money was just €34.4m.
The financial gulf between the Champions League and Europa League was again evident. Liverpool’s earnings from UEFA fell from €84.3m as a Champions League club in 2022-23 to just €26.8m last season, a campaign that ended at the Europa League quarter-final stage. Atalanta, the competition’s eventual winners, earned €33.9m, while the stronger coefficient of runners-up Bayer Leverkusen secured a higher pay-out of €41.2m.
Brighton & Hove Albion’s season in the Europa League was worth €21.3m, marginally more than West Ham United, who earned €19.1m.
Aston Villa were another club eating at UEFA’s table again last season and their run to the Conference League semi-finals brought in €16.2m. Villa, by contrast, are already guaranteed to make over €100m from this season’s Champions League, having already reached the quarter-final stages next week.
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All clubs competing in UEFA’s three competitions this season stand to earn more after an expanded Champions League format ramped up revenues. This year’s eventual winners could end up winning as much as €160m, while five of the remaining eight clubs will also get the chance to drive up revenues further at the Club World Cup held in the United States this summer. FIFA announced last week that the winners of their inaugural competition stand to earn $125m.
UEFA’s annual financial report illustrated its growing financial strength. In a 12-month period that also covered the European Championship held in Germany, total revenues ballooned to €6.7b. That was over €1b more than the last major tournament year of 2020-21, with media rights for the 2023-24 season bringing in just shy of €5b.
The three club competitions brought in €3.72b, more than the €2.5b generated through the European Championship. Prize money for the Euros totalled €331m, with winners Spain earning €28m and runners-up England receiving €24m.
(Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)
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