How much prize money did last night’s Europa League champions Villarreal earn by lifting the trophy after beating Manchester United 11-10 on penalties? The game had ended 1-1 at regulation time, extending into extra time of 15 minutes, each half, before the mandatory shoot outs. Valuechain reports that Villarreal converted all their 11 kicks while United bungled their last kick taken by goalkeeper De Gea.
Winning the Europa League might not be as glossy as lifting the Champions League trophy, but victors still earned a lucrative pool of money on top of automatic Eurooean Champions League qualification.
Teams competing in the Europa League do accrue an increasing sum of money the further they advance in the tournament, with the winners obviously earning the most.
Similar to the way the Cpions League is formatted, prize money for the Europa League is organised into individual payments based on each team’s finish in the competition. These numbers are based on and influenced by the value of the broadcast market.
For the 2020-21 campaign, same as the 2019-20 season, Europa League competition winners earned €8,500,000 (£7.5m/$10m). The runners-up earned €4,500,000 (£4m/$5m).
Teams who participated in the group stage earned a base fee of €2,920,000 (£2.5m/$3.5m), while each win in the group paid €570,000 (£515k/$680k) and a draw €190,000 (£170k/$230k).
Each group winner then earned €1,000,000 (£900k/$1.2m), while each runner-up received €500,000 (£450k/$600k).
Teams who then managed to reach the knockout stage of the competition were then awarded additional prize money of €500,000 (£450k/$600k) for the round of 32, €1,100,000 (£1m/$1.3m) for the round of 16, €1,500,000 (£1.4m/$1.8m) for the quarter-finals and €2,400,000 (£2.2m/$3m) for the semi-finals.
Sides like Manchester United, who dropped to the Europa League following their group stage involvement in the Champions League, pocketed an even larger cash windfall.
Valuechain reports off Manchester Evening News that Man Utd have already earned €23.4m (£20.2m/$28.6m) for their Champions League action this season – including an initial €15.3m (£10.79m/$18.7m) for taking part in Group H.
Winning the Europa League, then, would have earned Man Utd €16.9m (£12m/$20.7m).
| Position | Prize money |
|---|---|
| Winners | €8,500,000 |
| Runners-up | €4,500,000 |
| Semi-finalists | €2,400,000 |
| Quarter-finalists | €1,500,000 |
| Round of 16 | €1,100,000 |
| Round of 32 | €500,000 |
| Group winners | €1,000,000 |
| Group runners-up | €500,000 |
| Group match draw | €190,000 |
| Group match victory | €570,000 |
| Play-off round elimination | €300,000 |
| Third qualifying round | €280,000 |
| Second qualifying round | €260,000 |
| First qualifying round | €240,000 |
| Preliminary round €220,000 |