How much is winning the Europa League worth? What Manchester United will make for beating Ajax
Manchester United stand to pocket €14.7m in prize money should they beat Ajax in tomorrow’s Europa League final.
The Premier League giants have so far amassed €8.2m in prize money payments and will be rewarded with a further €6.5m for winning the final by European football governing body Uefa.
Should United lose to Ajax, whose total wage bill is more than six times smaller their own, they will still pick up a runners-up prize of €3.5m — guaranteeing them at least €11.7m in total prize money from the competition regardless of the result in Stockholm.
Yet the total financial impact of victory will extend much further, thanks to the spot in next season’s Champions League set aside for the Europa League holders.
United are also expecting a significant windfall in TV money from Uefa, regardless of the result on Wednesday night.
In fact, their run in the Europa League is likely to end up being more profitable than their exploits in last season’s Champions League.
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United made €38.1m from Europe’s elite competition last year, equivalent to £30m at the time. Meanwhile Liverpool made €37.8m for reaching the final of the Europa League.
And earlier this month United directors told investors they are expecting to make more from the Europa League than an English team would have done in an average season.
That’s primarily due to the relatively small number of English clubs who competed in the competition this season and — with the exception of United — their poor performance.
Uefa distributes its TV money payments based on two metrics; on how a team finished in last season’s domestic competition and how far they progressed in the Europa League.
As a cup winner — United qualified to the Europa League by winning last year’s FA Cup — the Red Devils are entitled to the biggest slice of the TV money set aside by Uefa for domestic performance.
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Meanwhile United only had to split the other half of the TV money with Southampton, rather than two other English teams as is usually common in the Europa League.
With Saints failing to reach the knockout stage and Tottenham only lasting one round after being relegated from the Champions League, United will have been entitled to 100 per cent of the TV money for the last four rounds of the competition.