How Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal will pocket huge windfall if they finish in top eight of Champions League table
LIVERPOOL, Arsenal and Aston Villa are set to receive major financial windfalls if they finish in the top eight of the Champions League.
The Premier League trio currently occupy first, fourth and seventh place respectively in the 36-team table.
Each of the teams participating in this season’s revamped competition will take home a guaranteed £15,744,700.
But thanks to the new league ranking bonus system, as well as they’re final position in the table, they’re all in line to receive whopping bonuses.
The overall bonus sum for the tournament is split into 666 equal shares which were initially each valued at £232,516 – the amount the last-placed team in the competition will receive.
The 35th-placed side will take home two shares, which will be allocated until the table-topper is given 36 shares.
As it stands, current league leaders Liverpool will pocket a whopping £8,370,576 for 36 shares.
Fourth-placed Arsenal are set to take home 33 shares, which equate to £7,673,028.
Aston Villa, meanwhile, are on course to rake in £6,975,480 as a seventh-placed finish will earn them 30 shares.
The shares, however, will be increased due to the undisputed prize money for draws – which increase the pot by £591,675 each time.
New Champions League format is a snorefest
By Dan King
UEFA sold the idea of expanding the Champions League from 32 to 36 teams, with each playing eight games instead of six in the opening phase, as a way of creating more competitiveness and excitement.
The biggest clubs would have two matches against their peers, rather than having to wait until the knockout stage to meet.
The smaller clubs would meet teams of a similar level twice and have a chance of tasting victory that was so hard to achieve if you were the bottom seed in a group of four.
Ignoring for a moment the fact that the real motivation was the simple equation of more games = more money, the theory itself already looks flawed.
None of the matches between European giants has delivered a compelling contest yet.
And why would they? At the start of the long season with more matches in it, why would any team with ambitions to win things in the spring, go out all guns blazing in the autumn?
Especially when they know they have six games NOT against big sides to make sure they accrue enough points to qualify at least for the play-off round (and even more games).
There is even less jeopardy than before.
Read the full column on the Champions League format fail and why everyone – including YOU – needs a rethink.
Teams will also receive an additional £1,775,445 for each win they notched in the group stage.
That means Liverpool’s six wins have pocketed them a staggering £10,652,670.
Arsenal and Villa’s respective four wins apiece, meanwhile, have so far earned them £7,101,780.
Arsenal will be back in Champions League action on Wednesday night, welcoming Croatian big boys Dinamo Zagreb to the Emirates.
Villa, meanwhile, will look to bounce back defeat to Monaco against Scottish champions Celtic next Wednesday.