By Samindra Kunti in Sofia
March 12 – Lobby group the Union of European Clubs (UEC) has proposed a new and radical redistribution model of UEFA revenue to address financial inequality in the club game.
On the sidelines of the annual general assembly of the European Leagues, the umbrella organisation uniting the continent’s domestic competitions, UEC presented a new model to redistribute the prize money of European club competitions and address the growing financial disparities in the continental game.
The lobby group for small and medium-sized clubs proposed to – in essence – scrap the value pillar that allocates millions to the biggest clubs in Europe and to pool the ‘starting fees’ that participating clubs get for participation in the league phases of UEFA’s competitions with clubs who don’t qualify for European competitions.
In the proposal, solidarity payments that UEFA hands out would no longer exist, but the policy would reduce the gap in revenue between those competiting in Europe, and those who do not.
The UEC has analysed the ratio of revenues of between the first and last clubs in nine domestic leagues – Azerbaijan, Belgium, Greece, France, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Ukraine – and detailed that under its proposal those ratios would drop from 40 to one to 5.5 to one. In France, Paris Saint-Germain enjoy 40 times the revenue of the bottom club. In Ukraine, the revenue ratio is 140 to 1.
The organisation argues that domestic revenue ratios drive ‘unhealthy extremes’ that benefit a small group of clubs who in turn can use their financial muscle to cement their dominance. The result, the UEC argues, jeopardises competitiveness.
At present, UEFA’s revenue from its three flagship competitions is €4.4 billion, with €3.3 billion allocated in prize money. The rest is spent on competition costs, solidarity, and both the Women’s Champions Leagues and Youth League.
Of the €3.3 billion shared among the 108 participating clubs, 27.5% is distributed equally as starting fees, 37.5% is paid based on performance, and the remaining 35% is allocated through value pillar payments, which largely benefit the big clubs.
The UEC proposes to scrap solidarity payments – ring fenced at ten percent at present – and boost prize money to €3.5 billion. Starting fees would amount to 62.5 % of the pot.
Clubs would get their performance-related revenue, but the starting fees would be pooled to benefit non-European competing clubs. The prize money in the Europa League and Conference League would grow with a new split of 50/30/20. At present the split is 74/17/9 in favour of the Champions League.
It’s the third policy proposal from UEC after the player development reward and the domestic media rights protection. The organisation has not been recognised by UEFA.
Contact the writer of this story, Samindra Kunti, at [email protected]