Even though Manchester City had a below-par season last time out, they managed to finish third in the Premier League table and earn themselves a spot in the Champions League.
Aside from the obvious prestige of competing in Europe’s premier club competition and winning one of the most sought-after trophies in the game, the financial side is becoming increasingly lucrative.
With the Champions League format undergoing a drastic change last season, clubs stand to pocket huge sums of money from participation alone, and that’s before going into the prize money and matchday income.
GRV Media’s football finance expert Adam Williams shares just how much Man City can expect as a share of the UEFA bounty.
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Manchester City's Spanish manager Pep Guardiola celebrates with the European Cup trophy after winning the UEFA Champions League final football match between Inter Milan and Manchester City at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, on June 10, 2023.
Photo by FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images
Manchester City looking at Champions League payday of over £80million
Williams exclusively told Manchester City News: “City get a flat participation fee to start off with, which was worth about £16million last year. Let’s call it £17m as the value of the TV deals and UEFA’s central commercial pot has increased.
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“You also get a league ranking bonus. City will be hoping for a bare minimum of £5million here, but potentially double that if they finish in the top two or three places in the league phase. If they finish in the top 16, they get a qualification bonus too, which is £1-2million.
“There are also bonuses for wins and draws in the league phase. Let’s use their performance in 2024-25 as a benchmark, though of course they will want to do far better than last season, when they only just qualified.
“Three wins were worth about £1.8million each, while two draws earned them about £600,000 each. That was £6.6million in total.
“Then, there’s the value pillar, according to which UEFA distributed over £550million based on a club’s five and 10-year coefficients, and the value of their association’s TV deal. That’s where the real treasure is buried for big, consistent clubs like City.
“Using Swiss Ramble’s analysis from last season, City earned more than anyone else here at about £40m. I think it will be slightly higher this year because of fluctuations in the relative TV rights for different associations. Maybe that will be around £42million this season.
So with prize and participation money alone, I think they’ll be budgeting for a minimum of £67million.”
“And because – touch wood – City are virtually guaranteed to finish in the top 24 places in the league phase, they will have at least five home games in the competition.
“The expansion of the Etihad Stadium isn’t complete yet, but they generated £76million in matchday income in 2023-24, when they reached the quarter finals of the Champions League.
“They average about £3million in matchday income per game, but you can probably conservatively bump that to £4million in the Champions League because of more premium-priced ticket sales, greater food and drink revenue and so on. So that’s another £20million of revenue virtually guaranteed.
“So I think they’ll be looking at £85-90million as a minimum compared to if they weren’t in Europe.
“It’s huge money and it’s largely a result of the new competition format, which Man City were in favour of and which was designed to placate the European Super League clubs.”
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Who Manchester City are set to play in the 2025/26 Champions League group stage
City are set to once again face off against Real Madrid, a team they’ve played every year this decade except for 2021.
A Kevin De Bruyne reunion is also on the cards thanks to the Napoli fixture, while Galatasaray may have already signed several players from City ahead of the game.
Man City’s Champions League fixtures: Borussia Dortmund (home), Real Madrid (away), Bayer Leverkusen (home), Villarreal (away), Napoli (home), Bodo/Glimt (away), Galatasaray (home) and Monaco (away).