It pays to win the Champions League — just ask Real Madrid.
The Spanish club was paid $101 million by UEFA for last year’s campaign, which saw Zinedine Zidane’s side defeat Liverpool 3-1 in Kiev to win a third-straight European title.
Despite being knocked out in the semifinals, AS Roma came out of last year’s competition as the second highest earner with $96 million, ahead of Liverpool with $93 million.
In total, $1.6 billion was distributed between the clubs that participated in the Champions League group stages and the 10 teams eliminated in the group stage playoffs.
Spanish giant Barcelona, knocked out of last season’s Champions League by Roma in the quarterfinals, was the competition’s 10th highest earner.
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Payments were based on each team’s performance within the competition, as well as in line with the proportional value of the TV market in each country.
In the UEFA Europa League — Europe’s second-tier club competition — $488 million was shared between participating clubs, with Arsenal, despite exiting at the semifinal stage, topping the earnings list with close to $38 million. Defeated finalist Marseille took considerably less with $26 million.
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Europa League champion Atletico Madrid, which defeated Marseille 3-0 in the final, had the most lucrative campaign overall with almost two-thirds of its $56 million takings coming from the team’s earlier participation in the Champions League.
