The richest club competition in the world, the UEFA Champions League, has often been branded as a money-minting machine for Europe’s richer clubs while the less privileged ones have often been relegated to feeding on the crusts and crumbs. To counter this increasing gulf between the richer and the poorer clubs, UEFA, European football’s governing body, has decided to split the €43.2 million generated from last season’s version of Europe’s top tier club competition among the top leagues of its member association.
Leagues with participants in the 2006/07 Champions League will receive a total of €36 million while those leagues that weren’t represented will benefit €7.2 million. The payment comes as a solidarity scheme associated with the UEFA Champions League and aims at supporting youth development activities in professional football and complements supplementary UEFA initiatives such as club licensing and the introduction of rules on locally-trained players.
Payments to the leagues would be made through the respective national associations which are then to transfer the entire amount to their respective recognised top leagues. The clubs who receive the money have to adhere to UEFA’s noble policy of youth development. As per UEFA’s rules, the 25-player squads of Champions League participants must have at least three players who have risen through the clubs’ youth systems.
Last season obserbed an increase in 20% money from the previous season’s competition. Most of this money is engendered from television money and sponsorships. England, who were represented by Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool last season in Europe’s most prestigious club competition, will receive €6.15 million which is by far the largest payment while Bulgaria will get €455,000 since their top club side Levski Sofia featured in the competition last season.
Source: Bloomberg
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