Yahoo News Aston Villa's bumper cash boost revealed after golden Champions League welcome
Aston Villa made a triumphant return to the top table of European football on Tuesday evening.
Having last featured in the Champions League, then known as the European Cup, back in 1983, a season after they had won the competition, the Villans were back in the big time last night in Switzerland.
Goals from Youri Tielemans, Jacob Ramsey, and Amadou Onana secured a win at Swiss side Young Boys, with Villa getting their campaign in the revamped, and lucrative, new format underway in some style.
While it was a game that Villa may have expected to emerge victorious in, the spoils for the success include more than just the three points that got them off the mark in the new 36-team league format. It was a win that bagged Villa €2.1m (£1.8m) and gave their ambitions for a strong, and financially beneficial run in the competition an early boost.
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To put it into some context in terms of one-off games, the £1.8m that Villa picked up for the win is £1.7m more than what they would receive for winning the Carabao Cup final, and just £300,000 short of what Manchester United bagged for lifting the FA Cup at Wembley back in May.
The new format makes its debut in the Champions League this season, and for Villa, a club that has had to be cute with its player trading this summer in order to ensure they were able to improve the squad as well as remaining compliant with the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR) following heavy losses, a Champions League journey could be a panacea for some of their financial headaches.
There is more money on offer than ever before for those competing in this year’s revamped Champions League, with two additional games meaning more walk-up gate money, almost certainly sell-outs, and more chances to take a slice of the massive €3.317bn (£2.85bn) prize pot that is on offer.
Points mean prizes in the Champions League. For the 36 clubs that make 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. Villa 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).
Should Villa progress to the knockout stages they will be in the hat for further lucrative cash prizes. This begins with the play-off round, with teams bagging €1m (£859,000) for qualifying. To play in this round, a team must place between ninth and 24th in the league system.
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.
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).
While dreams of conquering all at the Allianz Arena in Munich next year will be on the minds of all those who start the Champions League journey, for clubs like Villa, who haven’t been able to rely regularly on additional revenue from European football, the extra games will be valuable, win, lose or draw.
In Villa’s most recently published financial accounts for the 2022/23 period, it included 20 home games at Villa Park, with 19 of those falling in the Premier League. That worked out at revenue of £940,000 per home game.
The financial year that ended on June 30 for the club this year will include a significant amount more than that given the club had played fixtures in the FA Cup, Carabao Cup, and Europa Conference League at home, with 28 games played in total at Villa Park. Using the £940,000 sum, taking into account some movement either side in terms of attendance, that would mean a sum of £26.3m.
Four home games in the Champions League would deliver a sum of likely more than £4m, potentially higher given the controversial ticket price hike that was revealed earlier this month, due to the expectation that hospitality would also be a complete sell-out, while the club will have had some months now to upsell its commercial offering to either new or existing partners to take into account the opportunities that come with Champions League exposure, although the competition’s own UEFA partners take stadium branding on matchdays. It would, however, have been a powerful tool to negotiate with visible partners such as kit suppliers and front-of-shirt sponsors.
Villa have games still to look forward to against Bayern Munich, Bologna, Club Brugge, Juventus, RB Leipzig, AS Monaco, and Celtic, with expectation likely high that they can book a spot in the last 16 of the competition at a minimum.
