UEFA is proud of the fact that, starting this season, it will pay significantly more money to clubs that do not participate in the European Cup. This is intended to make the national leagues more balanced. But this hardly applies to the Bundesliga.
Last year, the UEFA Executive Committee had already decided that from 2024/25, those clubs that have not qualified for one of the three European club competitions will receive more money than before. The so-called solidarity share of the revenue from the Champions, Europa and Conference Leagues will rise from four to seven percent as a result of the major reform. Since Tuesday, it has been clear exactly what this means financially.
In principle, UEFA will redistribute €308 million of the €4.4 billion that is expected to be available for distribution per season by 2027 – an increase of almost 80 percent over the previous three-year cycle. The top five associations, in addition to Germany, England, Spain, Italy and France, will receive a maximum of €10 million. This upper limit was set by the Executive Committee at its meeting on Tuesday. This leaves 258 million euros for the remaining 50 UEFA associations.
“This is to promote sporting equality in Europe’s top leagues.”
“These funds are intended to promote sporting equality in the top European leagues, in which some clubs benefit from additional income due to their participation in European club competitions,” writes UEFA. Nasser El-Khelaifi, head of the club association ECA, also proudly speaks of ‘the most significant and comprehensive solidarity system in world football’.
But the example of Germany shows that the promise will not be kept, at least in the top leagues. So far, German clubs have received a combined total of around eight million euros, but apparently all of this money has been passed on to the second division clubs, which is explicitly allowed in the new cycle. But even if the money went to the Bundesliga teams that don’t participate in European competitions, the ten non-qualifiers would receive just one million euros each in 2024/25.
By way of comparison, the five German Champions League participants will receive 18.62 million euros for participating alone, and three-digit million sums are possible for individual clubs in the course of the competition.
