UEFA urged to give bigger share of cake to unlucky 600

For the 80 teams who qualify for the group stages of European club football, the season starts with a glitzy party at the draw ceremony in Monaco and ends with millions of extra euros in the bank.

But while those clubs cash in on the riches produced by the Champions League and, to a lesser extent, the Europa League, more than 600 top-tier clubs who fail to qualify have to feed off leftovers.

Amid widespread concern that the financial gap between Europe’s elite clubs and the rest is still growing, UEFA is being asked by the continent’s domestic leagues to the alter the way it distributes the huge revenue from its competitions.

European Leagues, their umbrella organisation, says in a report seen by Reuters that it wants the unlucky 600 to get a larger slice of the cake.

Fearing the system is becoming financially unsustainable, it has also asked UEFA end payments which are based on a club’s previous record in European competition — something it says creates a snowball effect.

UEFA’s club competitions are expected to rake in 3.25 billion euros (2.92 billion pounds) this season but the manner in which that money is distributed has become increasingly contentious.

According to UEFA and European Leagues figures, the 32 Champions League teams will share 2.04 billion euros of that amount with Europa League participants receiving 510 million.

Only 7.3 percent of the total (237.5 million euros) will be distributed in so-called “solidarity payments” and split between the remaining 600 clubs.

The report, which has been sent to UEFA and the continent’s 55 national associations, said this was down from 8.5 percent in the previous competition cycle from 2015-18.

“The financial gap between participating clubs and non-participating clubs is increasing, creating a negative effect on competitive balance,” it warned, pointing out that the percentage was more relevant than absolute amounts.

The report proposed that the solidarity payments be increased to 20 percent in the next competition cycle which will cover the period 2021-24.

Based on an estimated revenue of 3.30 billion euros per season, it said this would provide 660 million euros for those who missed out on European competition.

Breaking down the figures further, it proposed that 3.5 percent of total revenue (116 million euros) be distributed among clubs eliminated in qualifying rounds and 10 percent (330 million euro) to clubs who did not qualify in the first place.

The European leagues also want 6.5 percent of total revenue to go into a new pillar which would be used to fund professional football development outside the top five countries.

UEFA has already decided on the competition format for the 2021-24 cycle, which will see the addition of a new third-tier competition provisionally known as UEL2 as well as the second-tier Europa League.