It's the ultimate golden ticket in club football – and Celtic are now heading to the direct entry queue to an €853m European party of sheer opulence.
Brendan Rodgers' men are just one domestic point away from tasting Scottish Premiership success and with that a spot in the newly revamped Champions League for the 2024/25 season. Aleksander Ceferin has the ribbon ready for 36 teams to burst into a glitzy new arena. Victory over rivals Rangers pushed Celtic six points clear at the top of the league standings with just two matches to go as they get set to bank mega bucks and battle European heavyweights in a new format. The Swiss model is here and it's eight games against eight different opponents with all 36 ranked in a mammoth league table format.
Philippe Clement and Co could join the party but will have to navigate the tricky qualifying route. Celtic know their fate. The Hoops banked £30million last season with just four points from six matches. But another big cheque arrive in the boardroom next year. But just how much will it be? Record Sport crunches out the numbers, although first, let's freshen our minds of the incoming changes.
2024-25 UCL incoming changes
- Tournament increasing from 32 to 36 teams
- A guarantee of eight games for all teams who have automatically qualified. Up from six.
- A league format where teams will face eight different opponents on one occasion. Four games at home and four away.
- More games guarantees more money with £30m regarded as the current minimum haul in the present format
- Teams that finish in top eight are straight into the round of 16,
- Teams who finish between ninth and 24th will face off in a playoff round which brings in two more fixtures (10) in total. This is a two-legged tie to reach the last 16.
- No dropdown to the Europa League for the teams who finish between 25th and 36th.
Prize money on offer in UCL
- Qualifying for league phase - €18.62m (€17.87m down payment and guaranteed balance of €750K )
- League phase win - €2.1m
- Qualification for the knockout round play-offs: €1m per club
- Round of 16: €11m per club
- Quarter-finals €12.5m per club
- Semi-finals: €15m per club
- Final: €18.5m per club
- UCL winners: an additional €6.5m.
How 24/25 Champions League revenue differs
- starting payment (equal for all clubs in the competition)
- performance related payment (money earned per point in the group stage & for progression through the competition)
- The brand-spanking 'new value pillars', which weighs in the media market value of each league, a new five-year coefficient and the 10-year coefficient
The guaranteed payment
As we now know, Celtic have a huge grip on the Scottish Premiership title and with that a return to the UCL proper. Confirming the league crown will stamp the ticket and open the bank with millions set to come into the club. Rangers will need to navigate the qualifying rounds. UEFA state that each of the 36 clubs who qualify for the league phase can expect to receive an entry fee of €18.62m per club – an increase of 20 per cent from last year's €15.64m.
PRP (performance related payment)
Each win would net €2.1m while a draw is worth €700k. The new league phase ranking bonus will be paid out based on the final overall standings. The initial value of each share will be £236K with the lowest ranked team netting one share but increases each position you rise through the 36-team table (€276k x 36 would earn €9.9m). Each rank comes with one added share meaning the team who finishes top gets all 36 shares. Any savings from draws in the league phase will proportionally increase the initial value of the shares distributed to each position.
Clubs finishing in positions 1 to 8 will also net an extra €2m bonus with teams 9 to 16 grabbing an extra €1m. Reaching the knock round play-offs offers €1m per club with those figures getting much larger as the tournament progresses. Celtic won't drop down to the Europa League so reaching the top 24 guarantees 10 games – the equivalent of a run to the quarter finals in the current format.
New value 'pillars'
The Champions League revamp is mammoth but the biggest change within the payment structure is the new two pillars which distribute the rest of the wealth – the first one takes in the media market of the respective leagues and a modified five-year coefficient and is worth €640m – 75 per cent of the total share . The second is the non-European element – which factors in the old 10-year coefficient at a cost of €213m – which is the other 25 per cent of the distribution. Celtic are set to be in the bottom third in the European pillar and the non-European element. The exact placing can't be quantified until all 36 teams are confirmed, of course, but if they rank, for example. 32nd (out of 36) in both it would still land a cool £6m.
Will Celtic clear €30m?
In a short answer, yes. The Premiership champions landed a significant £31.7m in total income last season and that is almost guaranteed to increase. Scottish teams earn 10 per cent of the UK TV pool and if, as last season, they are the sole participants from these shores then money should be up on the £7m earned in 23/24, with an expected 35 per cent rise in TV income across the board in Europe.
There is the 20 per cent increase in qualifying, now £16.2m and a conservative baseline of around £6m from the two new value pillars inserted by UEFA. And that is before you factor in how much can be landed by winning a game. Celtic will play eight league games and, for example, two wins and one draw, would haul in around £4.8m on results based income – which itself would bring in an added £1.5m (if Celtic finished a conservative 30th in new bonus table).
And that's before you factor in four home gate receipts with ticket packages swelling. The club revealed matchday revenue was up 18 per cent to £51m in last year's financial results – and that will soar again. The Celtic board are often labelled prudent, and that's the nice phrase when punters are a in a good mood – but it appears £35m is a an all-but guaranteed estimate with a bonafide chance for it to soar past £40m.
