Manchester City’s 2024/25 UEFA Champions League prize money revealed | OneFootball

Manchester City’s prize money for the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League season has been revealed in light of their play-off exit at the hands of Real Madrid. 

City finished 22nd in the league phase having picked up just three wins from eight games – losing to the likes of Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus, Sporting CP and throwing away a three-goal lead to end up drawing with Feyenoord at home. 

But a victory against Club Brugge in the final league phase game all but saved Pep Guardiola’s side from dropping out at the first hurdle. Still, they faced 15-time winners Real Madrid in the knockout play-off round. 

After a 3-2 first-leg defeat at the Etihad Stadium, Kylian Mbappe scored a hat-trick at the Bernabeu which showed the Citizens the door and ended their quest for a second edition of the competition. 

But with an extra €400 million paid out across Europe’s elite clubs by UEFA, Manchester City ended up collecting €76 million for their early exit. For reference, winners PSG earned €144.4 million – according to ESPN.

Inter Milan – the beaten finalists in last season’s competition – were understandably second on the earnings list and got €136.6 million from the UEFA prize fund which shared €2.47 billion amongst the 36 teams. 

Aston Villa were the only quarter-finalist last season to get less than €100 million, earning a UEFA payment of €83.7 million which was partly explained by the club’s lower ranking after returning to the competition following a 41-year absence. 

In total, seven teams garnered at least €100 million in prize funds compared to five that got nine-figure payments the previous season when the total fund was €2.08 billion in the last year of the 32-team, group-stage format.

At the other end of the table, Slovan Bratislava secured the smallest payment, €22 million, having lost each of their eight league phase games, including a 4-0 defeat to Manchester City at the beginning of October 2024. 

The merit of playing in the UEFA Champions League compared to the UEFA Europa League is highlighted even more when comparing the prize money from both competitions. 

Winners Tottenham Hotspur got €41 million, while runners-up Manchester United were paid €36 million. The third-tier UEFA Conference League provided Chelsea €21.8 million for winning the title. 

The report also added that UEFA’s president, Aleksander Ceferin, took no pay rise in the 2024/25 season despite the increase in earnings for all of Europe’s major teams.