Barça have a lot to play for in the remaining three games of the UCL group stage. Losses vs Bayern and Inter away from home have turned all their remaining group games into ‘finals’. Once again, Barça will have to live with a smaller margin of error. Moreover, they need to be at their best during a packed schedule. Last year they were sent down to the Europa League. We’ll see if Xavi’s pupils manage to avoid it this season.
The consequences of a hypothetical elimination from the top continental competition would not only be sporting or reputational. Barça are playing for 30 million euros in the three remaining games of the Champions League group stage. Bearing in mind that Joan Laporta’s board of directors has budgeted to reach the quarterfinals. Barça would not be eligible for the prizes for getting to the last 16 (9.6 million) and quarter-finals (10.6m). These amounts contemplated in the forecast that vice president Eduard Romeu will detail this Thursday.
Numbers Talk
Taking into account that UEFA grant 2.8 million euros to the teams for each victory in the group stage, the figure that Barça would let slip would reach approximately 30m. In addition, the competition will distribute 300.3 million in ‘market pool’ – money distributed by the television market value of each country, and double, 600.6m, depending on the coefficient, calculated based on the trajectory of each club in the last 10 years. An early goodbye would cause a decrease in both pools – as well as in the ticketing earnings that any Champions League tie entails – for Barcelona’s accounts.
To gauge the importance of this, it should be remembered that in the 2018/19 season, Barça was the team that earned the most revenue in the Champions League (117.73 million euros). It was thanks to the UEFA coefficient, as the Catalans fell in the semi-finals against Liverpool. On that occasion, Barça received 34.3m thanks to the factor which is based on the performance of each club in the last decade.
