2024/25 UEFA Champions League prize money: Full breakdown of prize money by winners, knockout rounds and league stage games

Participation in the UEFA Champions League can prove to be extremely lucrative for a football club.

Therefore, it is viewed as a top competition by Europe’s elite teams, as strong performances can additionally lead to increased revenue, particularly if a club reaches the later stages of the tournament.

For the expanded 2024/25 season, competition organizers announced that the overall budget for the Champions League this season would increase to 2.437 billion euros ($2.71 billion/£2.06 billion). 2.03 billion euros ($2.19bn/£1.74bn) in 2023/24.

The main reason for this is 36 teams competing in the new league phase, compared to 32 in the traditional group phase.

The Sporting News brings you a full breakdown of the prize money allocations for participants in the league and knockout stages of the 2024/25 Champions League.

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Prize money for the Champions League 2024/25

Last season, eventual winners Real Madrid had a maximum prize pot of 85.14 million euros at their disposal, which Carlo Ancelotti’s team could only have achieved if they had won every single game in the competition.

Overall, there are various ways for the sites participating in the competition to win prize money. The majority of the total prize pot will be distributed to clubs as a reward for their results in the competition, as shown in the table below.

Performance related Prize money accounts for 37.5% (€914 million) of the total pot, a proportional decrease from last season’s 55%. The main reason for this change is the newly created Value column Take 35%.

The other 27.5% of the pool consists of equal shares — Entry feewhich will be divided among each of the 36 clubs in the league phase

Performance-related prize money (37.5% of the total)

stage	Prize money (per club)
winner	€25 million ($27.8 million)
Second	€18.5 million ($20.5 million)
Semifinalists	€15 million ($16.6 million)
Quarterfinalists	€12.5 million ($13.9)
Round of 16	€11 million ($12.2)
Reaching the knockout round playoffs	€1 million ($1.1 million)
Wins in the league phase	€2.1 million ($2.3 million)
League phase draws	€700,000 ($777,883)

Additionally, teams will receive a new league ranking bonus based on their final placement in the league stage. The league ranking bonus is split into 666 equal shares, initially worth €275,000, with the team finishing 36th taking home that single share. The 35th team receives two shares and so on until the first place team receives 36 shares. The undistributed €700,000 from each game drawn proportionally increases the value of the shares given to each position.

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Value column (35% of total value)

This explains €853 million of the prize pot and is a combination of payments related to the coefficients of individual clubs and payouts in the broadcast market. The value pillar is divided into two parts: a European part and a non-European part.

The allocated amounts will be proportional to the result of sales of media rights in UEFA markets and markets outside the governing body’s jurisdiction completed by July 1, 2024. In an example given by UEFA in its competition literature, if European markets contributed 75% of sales. If the media rights were to be fully exploited, the value column would be divided accordingly: 75% for the European part and 25% for the non-European part.

In the European part, participating countries are ranked according to the contribution of their domestic broadcasters to total media revenue. Clubs from these countries are then ranked based on their performances in UEFA competitions over the last five seasons. A separate ranking is also created using each participating club’s five-year UEFA coefficient. The average placement of each club in these two rankings results in ranks one to 36.

As with the league ranking bonus, the European portion is divided into 666 shares and distributed accordingly, from one to the team in 36th place and up. The non-European part also uses the share system and is distributed according to each team’s 10-year UEFA coefficient. These coefficients do not include the bonus points for titles taken into account in UEFA’s calculations for the 2021-24 cycle.

Equal shares – entry fee (27.5% of the total)

This last section is worth it €670 million. According to UEFA: “Each of the 36 clubs that qualify for the league phase can expect to receive a league phase allocation of €18.62 milliondivided into a deposit of €17.87 million and a balance of €750,000.

How to buy Champions League tickets 2024/25

As soon as the dates and times for the Champions League games are confirmed, the ticketing process will begin. Apart from the final itself, tickets for European games cannot be purchased directly from UEFA.

Instead, primary ticket sales will be conducted by the participating clubs themselves, allowing fans to access them seamlessly like other games.

Once tickets are distributed, fans will still be able to purchase tickets on the secondary market, with StubHub International being the best place to find tickets for Champions League matches.