After the draw in Lisbon (2-2), Benfica plays, this Thursday, all or nothing in the Europa League, in Glasgow, against Rangers and has at stake a place in the quarter-finals of the Europa League, as well as a monetary prize that, although much smaller than in the Champions League, it is always desirable.
Benfica reached this stage after finishing 3rd in the group stage of the Champions League, in a performance that earned them 43.491737 million euros – see the accounts detailed -, to which he added another 1.7 million euros with participation in the play-off to access the knockout phase (500 thousand euros) and qualification for the round of 16 (1.2 million euros). This is what Benfica has achieved so far this season in European competitions 45.191737 million of euros
How much is at stake?
Qualification for the quarter-finals counts 1.8 million euroswhile progress to the semi-finals is worth 2.8 million. Finally, the qualifying for the final is worth another 4.6 million euroswhile the big winner collects even more four million.
This means, after all, that, in the best case scenario, if one of the three Portuguese representatives in the competition wins the Europa League, their “total pie” will increase by 14.9 million euros – qualification for the European Super Cup is still worth 3.5 million euros.
The difference for the Champions League
Much is said about the monetary difference between being in the Champions League and the Europa League, but, after all, how different is it? Just look at the difference in values won so far between SC Braga and Sporting, for example, to get a small (large) glimpse. After all, there is more than 20 million difference raised so far, both having participated “only” in the group stage of their respective competitions.
But and in the knockout stage? By way of comparison, FC Porto – the only Portuguese representative still in the Champions League – has 10.6 million euros at stake in these round of 16, where they face Arsenal, having already won 9.6 million «just» by qualify for this knockout stage. Now, looking at the final prize, the big winner of the Champions League will collect a total of 52.7 million euros (plus the 3.5 million euros related to qualification for the European Super Cup).
To put it in perspective, just qualifying for the Champions League final worth 15.5 million euros, which surpasses the entire participation of a team in the knockout stage of the Europa League (14.9 million euros). They are two very different worlds.
note: In the future, this value will increase for the three Portuguese teams, regardless of whether they continued in the competition or not, as the value relating to the market poolonly awarded at the end of the season.
