Liverpool have maintained their 100% record in the revamped Champions League this season with 2-0 win over Real Madrid
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Liverpool celebrates after Cody Gakpo's goal against Real Madrid
Liverpool celebrates after Cody Gakpo's goal against Real Madrid
(Image: Getty Images)
Liverpool’s return to UEFA Champions League football this season has been flawless. Wednesday’s comfortable 2-0 win over holders Real Madrid underscored just how good the Reds have been this campaign so far under new boss Arne Slot.
Five games in, five games won, and Liverpool have almost certainly punched their ticket through to the next phase of the competition, and with three games remaining, and with those games against Girona, Lille, and PSV Eindhoven, the odds will be heavily in the Reds’ favour to make it eight wins from eight to end the revamped league table format for European football’s elite knockout club competition.
Last year saw Liverpool in the Europa League after the 2022/23 failure to make the top four of the Premier League. The absence of Champions League money will be impactful on the balance sheet when the club’s 2023/24 financial accounts are revealed, with the club likely to incur steeper losses than they have been used to.
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But accounts are a snapshot in time, and the club are already six months into a new financial year, and it is one that includes a return to the elite, as well as more prize money on the horizon.
For the 36 clubs that made it into the revamped league phase of the Champions League, which replaces the current group stage, there is a total €670m (£575m) to be shared equally. Liverpool are therefore entitled to €18.62m (£16m). There are then eight matches in this round to play, with the bonuses set at €2.1m (£1.8m) per win or €700,000 (£601,000) per draw.
After eight matches, this will form an overall league table featuring all 36 teams involved. Referred to as 'shares', the higher the finishing place the more 'shares' a club will receive. One share is €275,000 (£236,000), therefore, the 36th-placed side would take home one share €275,000 (£236,000) from the league system, whilst the team that finishes top wins 36 shares, or €9.9m (£8.5m).
Additionally, the clubs that place between first and eighth in the league will be given a €2m (£1.7m) bonus, and those placed ninth through to 16th will be awarded an extra €1m (£859,000).
So far, Liverpool have bagged themselves £9m from winning five games, a figure that will rise to £14.4m if they can maintain their perfect record over the remaining three games.
The league system's top eight teams plus the eight that progress from the play-offs will be awarded €11m (£9.4m) each just for reaching the round of 16.
Should Liverpool finish top of the pile then they would add £8.5m to the £9.4m from knockout qualification, meaning that the club could book £32.3m in prize money before even considering going deeper in the competition, or the £4m-plus that the club generates from matchday revenue for home games.
Qualification for the quarter-finals earns a club €12.5m (£10.7m), qualification for the semi-finals earns a club €15m (£12.8m), and lastly for reaching the grand final in Munich, the prize is €18.5m (£15.8m).
Finally, the competition's winner earns €6.5m (£5.5m) for lifting the trophy, and would later earn €4m (£3.4m) for competing in the following season's UEFA Super Cup. They would face the winner of next season's Europa League, with the winner getting €1m (£1m).
Liverpool’s banner financial year in 2019/20, when the club earned over £100m from their Champions League win, and posted a £42m pre-tax profit, showed the importance of playing, and succeeding at the top table in Europe.
On the back of a more challenging financial period that will likely be shown for the 2023/2024 reporting period, those figures earned in 2019 could be eclipsed when it comes to prize money, and for the Reds that would provide them an enormous boon and allow further investment on the playing side.