UEFA prize money boost for all European Qualifying teams

SteelyDanJalapeno

Great news coming out of Uefa today :

"SSE Airtricity League sides competing in Europe are set for a greater financial reward after a new prize money agreement was announced by the European Clubs Association and UEFA today.
Clubs have agreed to distribute revenue from the Champions League and Europa League more evenly from next season.

The Europa League prize money will increase by 65%.
The announcement comes amid concerns that the gulf between Europe's richest clubs and the rest is widening, with the result that both domestic leagues and the Champions League itself are becoming increasingly repetitive and predictable.
St Patrick’s Athletic secured €375,000 in prize money last year following their Champions League campaign which ended against Legia Warsaw. This year, Dundalk will now secure a minimum of €550,000.

The participants in qualifying rounds of the Europa League received a minimum of €120,000. Dundalk, Derry City and Sligo Rovers banked €250,000 after progressing to the second round of the qualifying last year.

Entrants this year will receive a minimum of €200,000 and €410,000 if they reach the second round.
"ECA and UEFA have together developed a revolutionary distribution mechanism for the Champions League and Europa League, aimed at sharing the competitions' revenue growth more evenly among European clubs," ECA and UEFA said in a joint statement.
"A record funding pot of €2.24 billion (per season) will be divided with a new focus on solidarity," they added following an ECA meeting in Stockholm.

"A greater proportion of funds than ever before will go to UEFA Europa League participants, to participants in the qualifying rounds and to clubs in medium/smaller championships.
"The concept means more funding for all, because the new percentage-based system ensures that every stakeholder will benefit proportionally from the competitions' continued growth."

Dundalk are set to represent the Republic of Ireland in the 2015/2016 Champions League qualifying rounds.
Cork City, St Patrick's Athletic, Shamrock Rovers will enter Europa League qualifying. UCD could also feature through the fair play entry."

http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/irish/2015/0331/691084-uefa-prize-money-boost-for-loi-clubs/

Paz-CCFC

Big boost for clubs in Europe, but adequate compensation for how they've closed off both competitions to bigger clubs. When the Europa League started in 2009, you'd have 37/38 getting to the group stages from the qualifiers (depending on if the defending champions were in the EL or CL). No one but the holders would go automatically into the groups. The opening round was generally contested between clubs of smaller nations, so many had a good chance of getting through at least one round.

Now there are only 22/23 places for the qualifiers, so it pushes some very big teams back a round or two. In the opening round, you have heavily seeded teams like Rosenborg and teams from Denmark, Poland, Romania etc. The top three nations (Spain, Germany and England) have five of seven teams automatically qualifying for the group stages.

Pighead

Great news. A minimum of €550,000 will hopefully see us finally spruce up Oriel Park and have a home fitting for the league's best team. I'd guess that a grass pitch will be high up on the to do list. With a decent draw we can even start dreaming of reaching the third round and a windfall of €1m. Some turnaround from the dark days of 2012.

SteelyDanJalapeno

Pighead wrote: »

Great news. A minimum of €550,000 will hopefully see us finally spruce up Oriel Park and have a home fitting for the league's best team. I'd guess that a grass pitch will be high up on the to do list. With a decent draw we can even start dreaming of reaching the third round and a windfall of €1m. Some turnaround from the dark days of 2012.

Every team's dream aye?

Ferris_Bueller

Would really love to see some of the leagues teams do well in Europe this year, I have a good feeling too. The four best teams in the league are competing in Europe this season which isn't always the case after teams lose players in between seasons, Dundalk, Cork, Pats and Rovers all have teams that I think could do well in Europe. They have a mix of good young talent and experience as well, plus Fenlon, Kenny & Buckley will all have a decent bit of experience in it too. With the extra bonus money up for grabs it could really financially boost a couple of teams and keep them going in the direction they're going.

Just a question for some people, say if Dundalk were to qualify for the CL group stage this year (no chance, but hypothetically), with the windfall they would get of €14m+ do you think this would be good for the league? I'd imagine Dundalk would become very dominant in Irish football for the next few years but would the rest of the teams in the league benefit from it in any way, would they all improve themselves by Dundalk bringing this much money into the league?

doncarlos

Ferris_Bueller wrote: »

Would really love to see some of the leagues teams do well in Europe this year, I have a good feeling too. The four best teams in the league are competing in Europe this season which isn't always the case after teams lose players in between seasons, Dundalk, Cork, Pats and Rovers all have teams that I think could do well in Europe. They have a mix of good young talent and experience as well, plus Fenlon, Kenny & Buckley will all have a decent bit of experience in it too. With the extra bonus money up for grabs it could really financially boost a couple of teams and keep them going in the direction they're going.

Just a question for some people, say if Dundalk were to qualify for the CL group stage this year (no chance, but hypothetically), with the windfall they would get of €14m+ do you think this would be good for the league? I'd imagine Dundalk would become very dominant in Irish football for the next few years but would the rest of the teams in the league benefit from it in any way, would they all improve themselves by Dundalk bringing this much money into the league?

If Dundalk (or any Debt free club) were to earn €14m I would imagine most of it would go into infrastructure and under age set ups. Our stadium is falling apart and €7m-€10m would develop a fantastic new stadium in conjunction with funding from DKIT and local council. Oriel Park could be kept and developed as a training ground.
The prestige of playing Champions league would be a big boost to the club and the league as a whole as it would raise the profile significantly and Irish players would be more inclined to stay and foreign players could see it as a shop window and a potential stepping stone to the Premier league. You'd have to imagine that there would also be a significant rise in attendances at least in the short term but it would take increased success to maintain this.

On the field, €200k a year on top of our existing budget should be enough to secure a league title easily. That's three top of the range LOI players which is enough to sway the balance for most clubs. We are a long way from the days of Drogheda paying €3m a year on wages.

chopperbyrne

If Dundalk got to the CL group stages and then consistently did it for a few years, the league's co-efficient would rise giving other teams a better chance of going further in Europe.

It would be good for clubs who qualify for Europe, but probably bad for the league (as a competition) unless other teams were making the EL group stages also.

Paz-CCFC

chopperbyrne wrote: »

If Dundalk got to the CL group stages and then consistently did it for a few years, the league's co-efficient would rise giving other teams a better chance of going further in Europe.

It would be good for clubs who qualify for Europe, but probably bad for the league (as a competition) unless other teams were making the EL group stages also.

Unless the other clubs are doing well, it does very little for the league's co-efficients. The individual team will get a minimum of four bonus points per group stage qualification, plus whatever they got from draws/wins (one/two points a pop). Going into national co-efficients, that only gives 0.25/0.5 and when that filters down to the other teams individual co-efficient, it'd be 0.05/0.125. A team that gets knocked out in the first qualifier of the EL gets 0.25 bonus points.

Take Scotland as an example. They've become a one man show in Europe since Rangers were demoted. Celtic consistently qualify for the CL group stages and make the latter rounds of one of the two European competitions. It's ensured that they're top seeds in all the qualifying rounds and has given them a much easier path. But they still have the same amount of European entrants as we do. If the SPL table finishes the way it is now, then Aberdeen and Inverness will be their Europa League entrants from the league. for the summer They'll enter the same round as the LoI teams (the SFA Cup side will go to the 2nd round). Shamrock Rovers will be seeded ahead of both of them. St Pats - who have never qualified for the group stages - will be seeded above Inverness and only slightly behind Aberdeen. So, it shows that a team from a lower-ranked league who successfully qualifiers for Europe and plays in a few of the qualifying rounds is better off than a team that rides on the coattails of a club from the same nation.

For the league as a whole, it's better that a number of teams do relatively well in unison rather than one team doing really well. Last season was the second best year in the League's European history in terms of national co-efficients, despite no team getting past the second round in either competition. But as they all managed to get that far, the points were more evenly achieved. It was better than the year Rovers got to the EL group stages, as they were the only good team that year.

In short, if an Irish team qualified for the group stages of the CL, then they'd be the only real beneficiary.

Korat

Correct me if I'm wrong, but historically whenever LOI teams have had more money they've blown it on wages, then mortgaged the ground to keep paying inflated wages until they went bust. The history of the LOI in 25 words.

doncarlos

Korat wrote: »

Correct me if I'm wrong, but historically whenever LOI teams have had more money they've blown it on wages, then mortgaged the ground to keep paying inflated wages until they went bust. The history of the LOI in 25 words.

When have LOI clubs had money?? Any boom and bust of clubs in the past was done by going into Debt not by spending money they already had.

dreamers75

Assume none of the solidarity money will be going towards prizemoney in the LOI.

anncoates

Delighted to see more money coming into the league, not least to Rovers, but I hope it's not going to lead to player wages going really mad again. Or clubs taking a mad punt on getting through X rounds or to the groups.

ionadnapokot

Great money. I hope it is invested wisely by the clubs involved.
Does anyone know the average turnover for Dundalk or St.Patricks? Would €550k pay a squads wages for a season?

civis_liberalis

dreamers75 wrote: »

Assume none of the solidarity money will be going towards prizemoney in the LOI.

Solidarity money for clubs that aren't in Europe looks set to rise too.

Solidarity money from UEFA and league prizemoney should be entirely separate. Don't be giving the FAI ideas.

doncarlos

ionadnapokot wrote: »

Great money. I hope it is invested wisely by the clubs involved.
Does anyone know the average turnover for Dundalk or St.Patricks? Would €550k pay a squads wages for a season?

I think our turnover was over a million about 4/5 seasons back. It would have dropped in seasons since but I would guess we've easily past that level by a good bit last season and wouldn't be surprised if it was €1.5m+

anncoates

ionadnapokot wrote: »

Does anyone know the average turnover for Dundalk or St.Patricks? Would €550k pay a squads wages for a season?

Surely their squads wouldn't be far off a million, or even more, I would assume?

Nesta99

ionadnapokot wrote: »

Great money. I hope it is invested wisely by the clubs involved.
Does anyone know the average turnover for Dundalk or St.Patricks? Would €550k pay a squads wages for a season?

Anyone can speculate on the wage bill and its amount really and not be in the ball park. The best way to think of this is that Dundalk are managing costs via gates and sponsorship and prizemoney among other income streams. This announcement is additional on top of the budget authorised by licencing.

doncarlos

anncoates wrote: »

Surely their squads wouldn't be far off a million, or even more, I would assume?

Not a chance Dundalk's is. That is €25000 a week. Would imagine it is closer to €15000 which is €600000

Rovers would surely be the highest by a bit with Pats, Dundalk and Cork all similar levels I'd guess.

Godot.

Would I be right in thinking if in the unlikely event Dundalk qualified for the Champions League they would be entitled to some of BT's new Champions League deal as part of the 'market pool'? BT covers UK & Ireland, non?

The thought of Dundalk getting €20m in one season :eek:

anncoates

doncarlos wrote: »

Rovers would surely be the highest by a bit with Pats, Dundalk and Cork all similar levels I'd guess.

Would doubt that. Our wage bill has come down in the last few years . We've not been able to match other club's wages a few times, including Finn's. We brought in good players but also have taken a fair few off the bill too like Finn, Killer, Sheppard etc.

I'd put us behind Pats and then Dundalk myself but I guess people quite rightly aren't going to divulge their clubs financial business at the end of the day.

The news is good for the league though. Hopefully the money will be used well. Can see some player bonus squabbles along the line too.

doncarlos

anncoates wrote: »

Would doubt that. Our wage bill has come down in the last few years . We've not been able to match other club's wages a few times, including Finn's. We brought in good players but also have taken a fair few off the bill too like Finn, Killer, Sheppard etc.

I'd put us behind Pats and then Dundalk myself but I guess people quite rightly aren't going to divulge their clubs financial business at the end of the day.

The news is good for the league though. Hopefully the money will be used well. Can see some player bonus squabbles along the line too.

If you were paying Finn €1,000 a week and then signed Fahey on €2,000 it's hardly reducing the wage budget. Same could be said for Kilduff - North, Sheppard - Drennan. Dundalk couldn't match Rovers offer for Drennan. So it's swings and roundabouts.

doncarlos

Godot. wrote: »

Would I be right in thinking if in the unlikely event Dundalk qualified for the Champions League they would be entitled to some of BT's new Champions League deal as part of the 'market pool'? BT covers UK & Ireland, non?

The thought of Dundalk getting €20m in one season :eek:

Doubt it as it is free to air in Ireland from RTE until 2018. We would get a percentage of what they pay. It would break their hearts to have to show an Irish team though rather than one of the English clubs.

ShoulderChip

Delighted for Chelsea too, every penny counts.

miroslavklose

doncarlos wrote: »

If you were paying Finn €1,000 a week and then signed Fahey on €2,000 it's hardly reducing the wage budget. Same could be said for Kilduff - North, Sheppard - Drennan. Dundalk couldn't match Rovers offer for Drennan. So it's swings and roundabouts.

Fahey's not on 2k a week is why.

Captain Havoc

I would imagine more money would stop one or two of the better players heading to England, the likes of Pat Hoban.

Nesta99

Not with the reported type of deal Hoban was offered by Oxford, £2k+ a week on a 3 year contract. Even an improvement to the current European cash thats big bucks for League of Ireland. Dunno how the Yellows sustain that either and especially if they go back to the conference. A lack of a transfer fee helped but still...

anncoates

miroslavklose wrote: »

Fahey's not on 2k a week is why.

Nope.

2k a day.