Column Uefa Cup Payments Steve Flanagan 15/05/2008 15comments | Jump to last Reports are saying that we earned anything from £500k to £3m based on our performance in the Uefa Cup which, according to Premier League [ahem] experts means that the gap between ourselves and the top 4 is closing ? but is it? Uefa have yet to reveal details of how much clubs received in the Uefa Comps this (or should that be last?) season ? but we do have the 2006-07 figures available and they seem to make a mockery of the Premier League's assertion ? though to be fair the Premier League are factoring in domestic TV payments as well ? but the figures still highlight the very big differences between the haves and the have-nots. Let's have a look at the Uefa Cup, seeing as that it relates directly to the club. Firstly, in 2006-07, each club received just over £47k for each round played upto and including the first round, giving Everton a £47k pot. A further £67.5k was given to each club in the 1st round of the Uefa Cup from the surplus Champions League revenue (how this is worked out I don't know) but Everton now have £114.5k from the European adventure. Moving on to the group stages, each team who reached that stage got £47k plus an extra £27k for every win in the group stage or £13.5k for every draw. So with 4 wins (totalling £108k) and the £47k for getting to the group stages, Everton's have now got £269.5k as they head into the last 32. P> Here, Everton got another £47k for reaching this stage and a further £47k for getting to the next stage - where we lost to Fiorentina. So, in all, Everton's reward for getting to the Uefa Cup last 16 was a staggering £363.5k Of course, this figure was at last year's prices. If we add in a very generous inflation of 40% for this season, then we arrive at around the £500k mark that has been suggested ? actually it's £508.9k Of course, this doesn't take into account any television money ? known as the market pool ? but under the rules of last season, Everton wouldn't have got any of that money as they didn't reach the Quarter finals! Basically, the only way to make anything like what can be called serious money is to get to the final. The 2006 winners, Seville, ended up with £4.2M for winning the trophy whilst Espanyol (the runners-up) got £3.4M Now let's have a look at the Champions League. Get to the group stages of the Champions League and how much money do you get? How about £3.6M! Yep, even before you play a group match in the Champions League, you've already earned more money than the Uefa Cup runners-up. Add in the fact that each win pays out £403k whilst a draw only gets you £201k ? and that's at the 2006-07 prices! If we up this by 40% (as we did with the Uefa Cup figures), then you are looking at each club getting £5M just by getting to the group stages as well as £564k for a win and £281k for a draw. So by winning a group stage match in the Champions League (irrespective of any other cash you earn) ? clubs won more for 1 game than we did for our complete UEFA Cup campaign! If you get to the group stages, win 1 match, draw match and lose all the others, not only do you, potentially, get into the UEFA Cup, you also earn more money than the team that actually won the UEFA Cup, assuming it's not you of course. Now what was that about closing the gap? Reader Comments Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer Nick Entwistle 1 Posted 15/05/2008 at 14:23:13 Report abuse "Premier League communications director Dan Johnson said: ?The new broadcasting deals are closing the gap, because the biggest increases have been in the overseas contracts which are divided equally between the 20 clubs. Furthermore, the increase in money means a lot more to the smaller clubs because it is a much bigger percentage of their turnover.?Taken from the icLiverpool link on this website this refers to expanding income this season comparitive to last. They use Man Utd and Derby/ Watford as expamples. Comparing this season and last, the Derby income, percentage wise, has increased, more so than Man Utd’s. However, the percent is relative to their own income and in fact Utd’s increased income this year is millions more than Derby’s. So no, this is just a lie and spin and other bullshit put forth by the PL to make it look like things are fair. Drew Phelps 2 Posted 15/05/2008 at 14:50:33 Report abuse Too bad we didn’t get any revenue from television in the UEFA Cup. The second Fiorentina game was broadcast live here in the States, and re-broadcast that evening. (What a massive performance, by the way...gave me chills...then heartache) Dan Parker 3 Posted 15/05/2008 at 16:35:03 Report abuse It also means though that we can attract better players. Matt Kay 4 Posted 15/05/2008 at 16:30:37 Report abuse So maybe you can see Coppell?s thoughts last season when he said he didn?t want Reading to compete in it. He was castigated for them but if the figures are (nearly) correct, was he so wrong? Steve Flanagan 5 Posted 15/05/2008 at 16:57:42 Report abuse Nick, I couldn’t agree more - and I thought it was just politicians who were masters of spin.Maybe someone should ask the PL how the fact that Man United earning almost £50m more than Derby County this season (and that’s just from the Premier League) means that the gap is closing?If you add in United’s estimated earnings from this season’s Champions League - then that difference equals just over £80m!! Chris Allen 6 Posted 15/05/2008 at 17:43:41 Report abuse A note on the UEFA Cup television rights. I used to work on tv rights for the UEFA Cup so I know a bit....basically each club is responsible for selling the rights for their home matches and keeps all revenue until they reach the semi-finals where the rights are sold centrally by UEFA. They will usually use an agent who will normally take a percentage (15%-20%) of the revenue. Games are sold 1st party (to a UK home audience), 2nd party (to the country the opposition is from) & 3rd party (any other country). As the competition progresses the value of the revenue tends to increase and the country of the opposition is very important as 2nd party rights are taken into account. Drawing a german club is very lucrative in comparison to a russian club for example. The Germans tend to pay a fortune for a match.Looking at Evertons foray into Europe - we played 4 home matches. Metalist probably worth £150k tops. Larissa and Zenit prob worth £200k each and then Fiorentina worth approx £300k. So I’d say we would have picked up under £1m...but still better than nothing!! Tony Marsh 7 Posted 15/05/2008 at 17:53:35 Report abuse Thanks for the figures Steve. I got slaughtered on here a few weeks back for saying the Uefa Cup was a waste of time; I hope now a few more will agree. The bad thing about football nowadays is it's all about the accummulation of wealth and not about winning trpohies.Yes trophies are nice but when you see the riches on offer in the CL, who gives a shit about the Uefa Cup when all you need do is finish 4th in the League and hey presto you're loaded. Pity we missed out isnt it? Andy MacFarlane 8 Posted 15/05/2008 at 21:31:10 Report abuse Tony, I was one of the guys queuing up to "slaughter" you. I apologise, having seen the figures quoted. The only difference (maybe?) between us is that I would be prepared to suffer the financial indignity of underpayment in the Uefa Cup in return for the fantastic experiences of travelling to and enjoying the games, and, MORE PARTICULARLY, the learning curve the campaigns give to the Club in general and Davie Moyes (tactically) in particular, plus the increased profile of the Club with regard to attracting new players and supporters. Dave Wharton 9 Posted 15/05/2008 at 23:31:32 Report abuse I can’t believe people are suggesting the Uefa cup is crap because it doesn’t earn big money.Did these people not get a buzz on Thursday nights knowing that they could go to a match, or at the very least watch the Blues on TV? I watched the 2nd leg against Metalist standing up 3 feet from the TV shitting my pants, but it still beat the fuck out of watching shite like East Enders and My Family.Did they not get excited about it because it was only worth £47k to the club? Are these the same people that slag off other clubs for being mercenary?I don’t know how much it was really worth in £’s to the club, but it brought me a whole load of enjoyment this season, the players clearly loved playing in Europe and I firmly believe that the spirit generated from our cup run carried through in to our performances in the league.The fans gained, the players improved, The manager learnt and the status of the club was raised. Playing in Europe (even Uefa cup) also attracts better players to the club as pointed out above.Still think it was worthless??? Did Steve Coppell have the right idea? Not playing in Europe did wonders for Reading.Of course the gap is not closing, but playing in the Uefa cup at least limits the damage and gives us something to cheer about.I’m off to find my happy place..... Dave Southword 10 Posted 16/05/2008 at 00:34:38 Report abuse Presumably all the fans were not let in for free so there is the gate money too. If I recall correctly then we keep the money of any tickets we sell so we keep the cash from all our away fans who buy tickets from our official allocation. A small percentage is paid to UEFA. So add the proceeds of around 150,000 tickets. Chris Allen 11 Posted 16/05/2008 at 01:01:31 Report abuse Dave - bang on. There’s ticket income too and undoubtedly extra income from sponsors.....plus as Dave says - the most important part was the excitement for the fans and players! I personally had 8 nights of far better entertainment than I was ever expecting!! Shame though that the team we beat in the group stages went in to win it!!! Chance lost me thinks. Eric Myles 12 Posted 16/05/2008 at 01:58:56 Report abuse The EPL spin that the gap is closing is a farce, even the way they present their ’facts’ in comparing percentage increases of Derby and United.United’s % increase is lower than previous while Derby has gained 50%. Well whoop dee doo. United’s income is how many thousand percent greater than Derby’s?Their meagre % increase is greater than the whole of Derby’s income.The EPL is only proving that the gap is getting wider, although maybe more slowly. Jason Lam 13 Posted 16/05/2008 at 02:28:03 Report abuse Yes football is a business. Seriously how ?loaded? will we be by getting 4th in that we?ll have a SERIOUS shot at the Premier League and European Cup? Progress without end product. Sure we?ll be there next season (challenging 4th) but no closer to the title or a Cup Final.The Uefa Cup is fun and refreshing for players and fans, it gives the players experience in playing European football (i.e. played on the grass) which add to their education and development. It also gives Moyes an excuse to add to the squad after what happened this year. If it?s all about negativity at least you could try viewing it as a necessary evil in extending Everton?s global appeal and developing players, and giving the fans genuine hope that we could get into a Cup Final.If it?s not about fun and hope, what is it then? Gareth Humphreys 14 Posted 16/05/2008 at 09:33:37 Report abuse Am I right in saying then that you are dissapointed we have qualified again ?If that is the case it baffles me.I’m sure I’m not the only one who was jealous of Zenit and Rangers on Wednesday night. Jason Chau 15 Posted 16/05/2008 at 09:32:48 Report abuse I think some people forget about the advantage of playing in the UEFA Cup not just in terms of experience for the players but also for UEFA seeding.Remember when we got 4th place not that long ago and got drawn against Villareal, one of the tougher teams? I think it’s good to play in the UEFA Cup a few seasons to get the players European experience as well as the seeding to be able to get into the CL group stages in the first place.Our previous ’CL experience’ showed why.And still, it was definately a kick to even just see the silver print on the back of each player’s jersey... Silly maybe I know, but I loved staying up till 4-6am Perth time to watch the blues stuff SK Brann 6-1. Peter Roberts 16 Posted 16/05/2008 at 12:41:20 Report abuse Decent article Steve, but one fundamental flaw in the article is the extra matchday revenue in ticket sales, merchandise, that the club earns from playing these extra matches.I bought my new Everton shirt before the Metalist game with my brother - we both bought drinks at half-time, a programme. We paid £18 each for the ticket. Given that each match was an average 36,000 gate at an average £20 a ticket over the five games, that?s around £720,000 per game on ticket sales alone. Multiply by 5 games = £3.6M extra revenue. Then add in the extra matchday revenue and suddenly that becomes a lot more than your supposed £500k that you seem to suggest we made out of the Uefa Cup.Then, as Jason has just said, the progress we made in the competition means that our seeding is better this time around - at the moment of the teams currently in the Uefa Cup next year we?re ranked 16th compared to 34th last year. The media coverage allows us to attract higher calibre players, which may or may not allow us to break the cartel at the top and hop onto the gravy train of the Champions League.The Uefa Cup is not the begging bowl you seem to think it is - look at the likes of Sevilla who?ve used it to progress in Spain and in Europe. © ToffeeWeb