By David Owen
April 22 – The 2019-20 European club football season was overshadowed, interrupted and ultimately elongated by covid. Even so, UEFA still managed to distribute well over €2.4 billion to the clubs which took part in its main competitions.
Insideworldfootball has analysed the breakdown in the newly-published 2019-20 UEFA financial report to draw up a Top 40 table of recipients.
While it is not exactly surprising that Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich should be the two best-rewarded clubs – they were, after all, the finalists in a Champions League that did not conclude until August 23 in Lisbon – it is somewhat ironic given their position as the two biggest non-rebels in this week’s surreal Super League showdown.
The table underlines yet again how difficult it is to achieve anything other than fleeting success in the club-world built by UEFA if you do not happen to be based in one of the five richest national broadcast markets. The highest-ranked club not located in England, Spain, Germany, Italy or France were Portuguese aristocrats Benfica, European champions in 1961 and 1962, down in 18th place.
Also worthy of note is that eight of 2019-20’s Top 10 were also in the Top 10 the previous season. By contrast, RB Leipzig’s feat in reaching the 2019-20 semi-finals has resulted in them leaping from well outside the Top 40 in 2018-19 to 11th spot. Barcelona still managed to come in third despite their 8-2 quarter-final demolition by Bayern.
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