A cliché says that today's football has become an industry. However, in order to truly understand what this means, we need a concrete example. The strongest interclub competition in the world is exactly what we need in this chapter.
Gabi Balint (Steaua), European champion in 1986. PHOTO: Facebook
In 1986, when Steaua won the European Champions Cup, according to official documents bearing the letterhead of the Steaua Army Sports Club, the following amounts entered communist Romania:
*$612,722 for the four games hosted by Bucharest.
*$350,000 after the final in Seville, won by the “military” after penalty kicks against Barcelona.
So, Stella's triumph in 1986 generated an income that barely approached a million dollars. Today, the prize fund provided by UEFA, for each season of the Champions League, is… 2 billion euros! Last year, Manchester City collected €80 million for winning the trophy.
On Saturday (10 p.m., Digi Sport 1, Orange Sport 1, Prima Sport 1), the winner of the Real Madrid-Borussia Dortmund final will collect a similar amount, with a small difference resulting from the course of the current edition. It should be noted that, on paper, if a team had won all the matches of this season's Champions League, it would have reached a maximum amount of 85.14 million euros. Here is the distribution of premiums for the season that ends on Saturday in London:
*Trophy bonus: 20,000,000 euros
*Bonus for reaching the finals: 15,500,000
*Semifinals: 12,500,000
*Quarters: 10,600,000
*Optimum: 9,600,000
*Victory in groups: 2,800,000
*Draw in groups: 930,000
*Qualification in groups: 15,600,000
As if these sums were not high enough, there are others added to them:
*30 percent of the total prize fund, we are talking about 600 million euros, will be distributed by UEFA to the 32 qualified teams in the group stage based on the country coefficient, calculated according to the results of the last 10 years.
*15% of the prize fund, approximately 326 million euros, comes from TV rights. Here, half of the amount will go to the national federations. The other half will go to the participating teams, depending on how many matches they have played.
Champions League Final 2024, London
Real Madrid (4-3-3)
Courtois – Carvajal, Nacho, Rudiger, Mendy – Valverde, Camavinga, Kroos – Bellingham; Vinicius, Rodrygo.
Dortmund (4-2-3-1)
Kobel – Ryerson, Schlotterbeck, Hummels, Maatsen – Sabitzer, Can – Sancho, Brandt, Adeyemi – Fullkrug
