Arsenal will earn £100m if they knock out Real Madrid | OneFootball

The financial stakes for Arsenal in their Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid could hardly be higher.

Should Mikel Arteta’s side progress to the semi-finals, the club’s earnings from UEFA’s new distribution model will soar past the £100 million mark.

The Times 19 March 2025

UEFA’s revamped revenue system places greater emphasis on seasonal performance rather than historical success, meaning that clubs who achieve results in the current campaign are rewarded more generously than before. This shift reduces the dominance of the coefficient ranking, which previously favoured clubs with a longer European pedigree.

Astonishingly, even Manchester City, who failed to progress beyond the group stage, have still earned an estimated £64 million from the competition.

Meanwhile, Aston Villa, who reached the quarter-finals, are expected to take home at least £71 million, according to football finance expert Kieron O’Connor, who runs the Swiss Ramble blog, as reported in Wednesday’s edition of the Times.

“The dreaded UEFA coefficient, which buttressed the elite, is still in there but it is now less of a factor,” O’Connor said. “It does still work against clubs such as Aston Villa that haven’t qualified for ages, which helps explain why their earnings are below Liverpool’s even though they have progressed further.”

Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images

Liverpool, Arsenal, and Villa have already benefited from UEFA’s decision to increase performance-based payments. The top eight clubs in the new 36-team league phase received an extra €2 million, while clubs’ finishing positions also dictated significant bonuses. Liverpool, for example, earned €10.6 million from their placement in the table.

A senior UEFA official confirmed that the changes were made to reward current performance rather than past achievements.

“We wanted to reward clubs’ performances and the results in the season more – not what they had achieved prior to this season,” the UEFA source said. “We also wanted to tackle the issue of the market pool that sometimes gave a disproportionate advantage to some clubs or countries.”