2025–26 Champions League Prize Money: Full List of Earnings for Every Club
A second frenetic, drama-laden season of Champions League action has come to its conclusion.
There were many doubts that the expanded format of the competition, now befit with a league phase and knockout playoff round, would dilute the quality of Europe’s premier club competition. The soccer on show has persisted, with some of the ties involving Bayern Munich among the greatest to grace an edition of the tournament. However, one of the consequences of expansion has come to pass: the rich keep getting richer.
The system is set up to appease and favor the elite, with the gulf in revenue streams between those competing at the very top and the rest only widening due to its persistent (and designed) reinforcement.
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There’s more money to go around, thus aiding every single competitor, but the cash earned by those at the very top is only facilitating a ’virtuous cycle’ and likely to lead to a cynical predictability within a sport that has forever captured the imagination due to its capacity to bewilder.
Here’s an overview of roughly how much each club has made after the league phase.
2025–26 Champions League Revenue
Rank | Club | Estimated Total Revenue |
|---|---|---|
1. | PSG | $170.9 million |
2. | Arsenal | $167.8 million |
3. | Bayern Munich | $149 million |
4. | Liverpool | $128.2 million |
5. | Atlético Madrid | $122 million |
6. | Real Madrid | $121.2 million |
7. | Barcelona | $116.4 million |
8. | Man City | $113.5 million |
9. | Chelsea | $107.9 million |
10. | Tottenham | $100 million |
11. | Bayer Leverkusen | $93.1 million |
12. | Sporting CP | $90.9 million |
13. | Inter | $86.8 million |
14. | Atalanta | $85.7 million |
15. | Borussia Dortmund | $82.1 million |
16. | Juventus | $78.3 million |
17. | Newcastle | $75.3 million |
18. | Marseille | $63.8 million |
19. | Bodø/Glimt | $62.3 million |
20. | Benfica | $62.2 million |
21. | Monaco | $62 million |
22. | Galatasaray | $58.4 million |
23. | Eintracht Frankfurt | $58.1 million |
24. | Napoli | $57.6 million |
25. | Club Brugge | $56.4 million |
26. | Olympiacos | $54.9 million |
27. | PSV | $51.8 million |
28. | Villarreal | $51.5 million |
29. | Ajax | $51.5 million |
30. | Copenhagen | $45.2 million |
31. | Qarabağ | $42.1 million |
32. | Athletic Club | $42.1 million |
33. | Union Saint-Gilloise | $38.3 million |
34. | Pafos | $35.7 million |
35. | Slavia Prague | $35.5 million |
36. | Kairat Almaty | $24.9 million |
* Data provided by The Athletic. Figures converted into dollars at time of publication.
Revenue earned from competing in the Champions League is distributed via UEFA’s participation fee ($21.7 million for all 36 clubs), prize money and their value pillar.
Prize money is earned from winning (worth $2.5 million per win) or drawing ($0.8 million) league phase matches, and the club’s final standing in the table. Kairat Almaty received an added $350,000 for finishing bottom while table toppers Arsenal earned $12.6 million.000.
For reaching the last 16 automatically, the top eight received an extra $12.8 million, while those who qualified for the knockout playoff round earned $1.2 million.
There is also UEFA’s value pillar—a payout guaranteed before the competition starts. This is a ranking of all 36 clubs based on club market value, five-year UEFA coefficients, which make up the ’European’ part of the pillar, and 10-year UEFA coefficients, constituting the ’Non-European’ part of the pillar.
Swiss Ramble estimated the value pillar to be worth €853 million, with the European part making up 73% of the pie and the Non-European part just 27%. With media markets and coefficients a major factor in determining this ranking, Europe’s elite are, of course, going to benefit the most.
Manchester City are expected to have received the biggest payout ($53 million), with Paris Saint-Germain ($51.4 million), Bayern Munich ($50.2 million), Liverpool ($49.6 million), Real Madrid ($48.3 million), Chelsea ($46.5 million) and Arsenal ($43.2 million) the next biggest beneficiaries.
The elite’s pockets are lined, but several smaller market clubs with a limited pedigree in modern European football were estimated to receive less than $12 million from the value pillar—Slavia Prague, Galatasaray, Qarabag, Pafos and Kairat. Two of these teams qualified for the playoffs.
The clubs listed above will make most of their Champions League revenue from the equally distributed participation fee, but the big boys earn a whole lot more as part of the ’virtuous cycle’ we mentioned earlier.
Taking into account the participation fee, prize money (including bonuses) and UEFA’s value pillar, champions Paris Saint-Germain made north of $170 million. As many as 10 clubs cracked $100 million. Marseille and Villarreal, both eliminated, earned $63.8 million and $51.5 million, respectively. The latter didn’t even win a game.
Kairat have made less than half in revenue than the Yellow Submarine despite boasting an identical record, and that’s primarily because of the value pillar, designed to serve the interests of the continent’s aristocracy.
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