Chelsea capped off a sensational season with a trophy as they defeated Real Betis in the Conference League final 4-1.
The Blues were miles off the pace early on, and it looked like Enzo Maresca’s warning to move on quickly from the win over Nottingham Forest had fallen on deaf ears.
However, Cole Palmer showed his class with two incredible assists for Enzo Fernandez and Nicolas Jackson, before Jadon Sancho and Moises Caicedo’s late strike gave the Blues their first trophy since Todd Boehly took the reins.
Chelsea had already secured a big payday with Champions League qualification, however have added to that with the winner’s purse from the Conference League.
Chelsea’s Conference League prize money
Finance expert Adam Williams has shared how the Blues are in line for a prize fund of around £17.8m from participation in Europe’s third level of competition.
He said: “The total pot for Conference League teams is about £240m. That’s about 10 per cent of the Champions League’s central prize money pot, so immediately you can see how this isn’t going to be a game-changer for Chelsea in terms of revenue.
“As Chelsea finished top of the league phase with six wins from six, their prize money here is relatively easy to work out.
“It’s €2.4m for six wins, €1m for finishing 1st, €400,000 for qualifying for the knockouts, €800,000 for reaching the round-of-16, €1.3m for the quarter-finals, €2.5m for the semi-finals then €4m for the final.
“On top of that, you have the ‘value pillar’, which accounts for 20 per cent of the overall revenue for the Conference League. For this you take into account Chelsea’s five and 10-year UEFA coefficients plus the size of the broadcast market in England relative to the other nations with representatives in the Conference League.
“UEFA then draw up a league table where the bottom team gets one share, the second-bottom gets two shares, the third-bottom three shares and so on up to the top-ranked team, who get 36 shares. I’m fairly sure Chelsea are the top-ranked team based on the value pillar metrics. From what I can see the shares are worth about €85k each, so Chelsea would get just over €3m.
“Add all that up and you’ve got €20.6m if they win or €17.6m if they lose. Convert all that to sterling and it’s between £14.8m and £17.3m for Chelsea. The exact figures will vary a little bit depending on changes in the values of UEFA’s media rights deals this year, but I don’t think the margin for error will be any bigger than, say, £1m.“
Chelsea’s prize money can pay star player’s wages for two years
The £14.8m may seem a minor amount based on how much clubs earn in transfer fees, however the money can certainly be put to good use.
With the players that have been brought in under Todd Boehly normally starting on smaller base salaries, the money would cover a significant portion of the wage bill.
In fact, the figure is enough to pay Palmer’s wages for two years, based on his £130,000-per-week salary (Spotrac).
Prize money comes second to winning a trophy though, and the first honour of the new era sets the Blues up for bigger and better things as this project goes on.
