Arsenal saw their bid for glory in the UEFA Champions League ended at the semi-final stage by Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday evening.
Having fallen short in the bid to claim the Premier League title this season, despite some memorable moments, such as the quarter-final success over Real Madrid, Mikel Arteta’s men found themselves unable to get the better of the Parisiens, with the wait for a Champions League crown continuing for the Gunners.
But what the club has achieved in the competition this season will aid their bid to get over the hill, with significant investment expected to arrive in the summer, and the money achieved from their run in European football’s most lucrative knockout cup competition meaning they have plenty of dry powder to attack the next transfer window.
What can be gleaned financially from the Champions League can be transformational for clubs. Indeed, the years that Arsenal spent outside of the competition, with the odd appearance in the Europa League, saw them fall well behind their major Premier League competitors. But a return to regular Champions League qualification has seen them rise to seventh in the Deloitte Football Money League, which was published in January, above the likes of Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and even league winners Liverpool when it came to revenue for 2023/24.
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Another season in the Champions League next year is all but assured, while the sums earned from the run to the semi-final this season will mean that the club will likely be headed for a banner year for their revenue when the 2024/25 accounts are published early next year, with Arsenal’s financial year coming to an end at the end of May.
Of the four competing English clubs in this year’s competition, which included Liverpool, Manchester City and Aston Villa, Arsenal achieved the second highest revenue at the end of the revamped league phase, in its first year, with sums of around £77m achieved through qualification, prize money, broadcast fees and progression to the knockout phase.
With six wins and a draw, as well as the sums due for where they placed in the competition, with money arriving for finishing in the top eight as well as a pot of money from the distribution of shares for the 36 teams on a sliding scale, Arsenal bagged a little over £30m.
The broadcast sums were significantly impactful, with the monies due to clubs based on the newly-introduced ‘value pillar’, which replaced the traditional UEFA co-efficient. The value pillar was split into competitive performance both in European competition and domestic competition over a 10-year period. Like with the UEFA coefficient, that is determined on a points basis and the clubs with greater success over that period can expect higher sums from the broadcast monies.
Arsenal claimed around €36.5m (£30.5m) from the value pillar, a figure that took them to around £60.5m when calculating the money earned ahead of the knockout phase. When factoring in the initial sums for actually making the Champions League itself by virtue of a top-four finish, the final total comes to just shy of £77m.
Beyond that, Arsenal earned €27.5m (£23.4m) from success in the last 16 against PSV Eindhoven and then Real Madrid. That takes the pot earned to £100.4m when it comes to prize money directly attributable to the competition.
Defeat against PSG means that they missed out on an additional €18.5m (£15.7m) that the semi-final winners receive, while the overall winners will bag €25m (£21.3m). That takes the total that the Gunners could have achieved with a run to glory to £137.4m.
While disappointing to not have achieved that sum, it is important to note that matchday revenue is significant for Arsenal, and with the four home games in the league phase, and the three in the knockout phase, the revenue from the additional Champions League games came out at at an estimated £37m, with the club averaging around £5.3m per game when it comes to matchday revenue.
Last year the club played 25 home games, including five in the Champions League. The additional two home games improved their matchday revenue position for the current season by £10.6m.
Taking that into account, and not including the unknown sums made through the merchandise sold on those Champions League home games and additional hospitality that was sold, which using a conservative estimate could be around £10m, the club made £134.7m from this year’s competition. Adding in estimated revenue related to the competition could push that close to £150m.
That is the prize for clubs. Success in the competition moves the needle considerably when it comes to revenue. For Arsenal, already heading into the summer with healthy PSR headroom, they have the funds to address the areas where they have fallen short this season.