credit: UEFA – Getty
Today, Tuesday 17 September 2024, the UEFA Champions League enters a new era with the introduction of a regular season with 36 clubs. A new format that is obviously more lucrative for the clubs involved.
For this new format planned for the 2024-2027 cycle which allows more clubs to participate in the Champions League but also in the Europa League and Conference League, UEFA to increase revenues, those who come from TV rights, sponsorship and hospitality, ticketing, merchandising.
In France, it is the group CANAL+ which hit the jackpot by offering all 3 competitions and 546 matches each season! At the time of the officialization of this contract announced in 2022, the newspaper The Team reported an annual contract estimated at 480 million euros. “We have mobilized all the energies of Canal+” explained to us a few days ago Thomas Sénécal, Director of Sports for the CANAL+ group, during the presentation of the dedicated device.
The even more lucrative business of the new UEFA Champions League format for 2024-2027
With the 3 competitions bringing together 36 teams and 8 matches per team for the regular season (6 in the Conference League), more matches including big games will be broadcast from the start.
For this 2024-2025 season, UEFA planned a few months ago gross revenues of 4.4 billion euros for the Champions League, the Europa League, the Conference League and the Super Cup. Last year, including the group stages, these competitions brought in a total of 3.7 billion euros.
With the change in format of its three club competitions, UEFA is therefore counting on an increase in its revenue of around €700 million. As mentioned above, it is mainly TV rights that fuel UEFA's economy.
Of this sum, UEFA will redistribute the vast majority to the clubs, i.e. 3.317 billion euros. 74.38% of this sum will go to the clubs involved in the Champions League + Super Cup, i.e. 2.467 billion euros.
The clubs involved in the Europa League will share a prize pool of 565 million euros and the Conference League clubs 285 million euros.
What bonuses for clubs in the 2024-2025 Champions League?
For this Champions League with 36 clubs and the 8 regular season matches, UEFA has reviewed the sharing of bonuses distributed to the clubs.
Let us point out that of the sum of 2.467 billion euros allocated to the Champions League (and the Super Cup which represents a total of 9 million euros), the clubs eliminated in the play-offs a few weeks ago share 30 million euros (4.29 million euros per club).
For the distribution of bonuses, UEFA divides the share into 3 categories :
- 27.5% is distributed equally between the clubs for their participation (€670 million in total)
- 37.5% are distributed based on performance and results (€914 million in total)
- 35% are distributed according to the “value pillar” formerly market pool (€853M)
Participation bonuses (€670M):
For the 36 clubs involved in the regular season, each receives a participation bonus of 18.62 million euros.
Performance bonuses (€914 million):
For performance bonuses, A win in the regular season will bring in 2.1 million euros and a draw 700,000 euros.The undistributed sums (in the event of a draw it is €700k) will be allocated for other payments linked to the final ranking of this phase.
At the end of the regular season and the 8 matches played, a bonus will be paid to the clubs according to their ranking. 666 shares of €275,000 are envisaged with one share paid to the last in the ranking (€275K) and 36 shares for the first (€9.9M).
In addition, a bonus of 2 million euros will be paid to the clubs that finish from 1st to 8th place. The clubs from 9th to 16th place will receive 1 million euros.
Finally, at the end of this regular season, the 16 clubs which will participate in the play-offs (9th to 24th place) will receive €1M.
For the rest of the competition, here are the details of the cumulative bonuses:
- 1/16th final (16 teams): €11M
- 1/4 final (8 teams): €12.5M
- 1/2 final (4 teams): €15M
- Final (2 teams): €18.5M
- Winner (1 team): €6.5M
Bonuses linked to “value” (€853M):
This new “value pillar” is a combination of the old market pool and the individual coefficients of the clubs. The amounts allocated are proportional to the result of sales of TV rights for the competition on the European market and other markets.
UEFA Champions League 2024-2025 sponsors
For this new cycle and the new “regular season” format, UEFA can count on the support of historic partners of the competition which awards the Cup with the big ears.
Among the official sponsors who have extended the adventure, we find Heineken, PlayStation, Lay's, FedEx, Mastercard and Just Eat. The newcomer is the platform Crypto.com which becomes global sponsor of the UEFA Champions League for the coming years.
Brands that will benefit from broad visibility during TV broadcasts as well as various marketing rights.
For his part, adidas has also extended with the UEFA Champions League to remain the official ball of the competition until 2027. A partnership that began in 2001 with the brand with the three stripes.
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