Champions League payout create more inbalance

The Champions League payout structure for last season was revealed and not surprisingly, clubs from England raked in a large share of the prize money, with Manchester City leading the way with a haul of 76 million Pounds.

I say the payouts were not surprising because it continued to demonstrate UEFA’s commitment to helping the rich clubs create more wealth for themselves. The baseline of money for every club that reaches the group stage is equal, but the differences rest in the television money that is distributed and it is based on a market share. That is why Manchester City, a semi-finalist was able to top the table and why Manchester United was able to come in 13th despite not making it out of the group stage.

Because of England’s television deal and the other rich deals signed by the top leagues around Europe, the biggest clubs are continuing to get more money, further leaving behind clubs from smaller leagues.

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To some, this might not be a problem. These fans only tune in to see the Premier League clubs, or Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Juventus, and Barcelona. They don’t care for clubs outside of this rich power structure, and that is fine.

For those that want to see upsets and clubs from smaller countries actually given an opportunity to compete for the biggest prizes in world soccer, this is a worrying trend. An example of this imbalance can easily be found in that Benfica, who made it all the way to the quarterfinals, they received two million pounds less than Manchester United who didn’t even make it out of the groups. Even worse, Dynamo Kyiv was able to advance to the round of 16, but still made ten million pounds fewer than United.

One look at the current table in the Champions League will reveal to some degree how damaging this financial imbalance is hurting the overall product. In groups A-D, those that have played four matches, three have all but been settled. Arsenal and PSG in group A have a nine-point gap and are assured to advance. The same could be said for Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich in group D and to some extent for Barcelona and Manchester City in group C.

My primary argument here is that this imbalance of prize money is creating a system that eliminates much of the drama of the last two rounds of the group stage. These big clubs can trot out weakened, youth filled sides without real consequence. That hurts the product overall.

UEFA has in some degree attempted to fix the problem by implementing a system of rewarding on-field play rather than market share starting in 2018, but is that enough?

The established powers in the Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga, and La Liga already dominate the financial balance sheet to begin with. Perhaps UEFA should look into providing bonuses for smaller clubs similar to that of the US Open cup, who gives a bonus for the lower level clubs that make it the farthest. So for example, clubs hailing from leagues in the 5-10 coefficient that advance the farthest get a bonus and the same applies the down the rest of the coefficient chart.

There have also been talks amongst the smaller nations of creating an Atlantic League with clubs such as Ajax, Celtic, F.C. Copenhagen amongst others in an effort to level the playing field. This plan has come under skepticism as it would damage the league’s those clubs originally come from and the list of negatives continues from there.