Champions League victor Real Madrid secured the largest revenue payment from European football’s governing body Uefa for competing in the tournament’s 2013-14 edition, with Paris Saint-Germain securing second spot due to the size of its payment from the television market pool.
The 32 teams that competed in the Champions League shared €904m ($1.23bn) in payments from Uefa in 2013-14, matching the record outlay from the previous season.
Each club was entitled to a minimum payment for participation in the competition. Additionally, performance bonuses were paid for every win or draw in the group stage and each knockout round successfully negotiated, while monies from the market pool were divided according to the proportional value of the national television market allocated to each individual club, among other factors.
Real Madrid defeated Atletico Madrid 4-1 in an all-Spanish Liga final on May 24. Real’s victory secured it top spot in the payment rankings with its €57.4m including the standard €8.6m participation bonus, more than €20.5m from the market pool and over €28m in performance monies including €10.5m for its final victory.
However, Atletico was knocked into third place by PSG. The French Ligue 1 champion was eliminated in the quarter finals but secured a payment of €54.4m, with €33.9m coming from the market pool. Uefa said this is because only two French clubs played in the group stage and the other, Olympique de Marseille, departed the competition without a point.
Beaten finalist Atletico secured a payment of €50m, with €17.1m coming from the market pool. Despite exiting the competition at the quarter-final stage, English Premier League club Manchester United secured fourth place with €23.8m of its €44.8m coming from the market pool.
German Bundesliga champion Bayern Munich, which eliminated United, rounded out the top-five with a payment of €44.6m – of which €18.7m came from the market pool.
PSG’s market pool payment of €33.9m was the largest for the 2013-14 season, ahead of Italian Serie A champion Juventus whose total €43.1m payment was dominated by its market pool share of €32m.