UEFA Club Competitions - How are the revenues generated by club competitions distributed?

Dear Clubs Representatives,

Last week we shared in the CAP the details of UEFA Club Competitions (UCC) payments to clubs for season 2021/22. In order to complete our explanation and provide a more in-depth analysis, let’s have a closer look at the UCC revenue composition and its distribution.

Part 1/3 – UEFA Club Competitions Revenues: Project accounts 2021/22

The season 2021/22 was the inaugural season of a new three-year club competition cycle (2021-24). For the first time in 20 years, the UCC season counted once again a third major competition with the introduction of the UEFA Europa Conference League. The additional number of matches combined with higher sales for the new cycle, considerably increased the overall gross revenue generated by UCC, which stood at €3.61 billion for season 2021/22, an unprecedented number representing an increase of 15% compared to the previous season:

Gross revenue consists of rights revenue, but also includes tickets and hospitality revenue generated by the three main competitions finals as well as the UEFA Super Cup (for all other matches during the UCC season, home clubs keep the matchday revenue).

Overall, the number of UCC matches has considerably increased compared to the previous cycle. Despite the decrease of the number of clubs participating in the UEFA Europa League (from 48 to 32), the addition of the UEFA Europa Conference League and the introduction of play-offs in Europa League increased the total number of UCC matches by +149 Group Stage onwards. The total increase of the number of matches obviously engendered additional competition costs when compared to the previous season:

For 2021/22, UEFA allocated a total of 7% of the gross revenue for solidarity payments. Out of the 7%, which represents €253 million, 4% went to Non-Participating clubs for investment in youth football development projects and 3% to clubs eliminated in the Qualifying Rounds. We will provide further explanation about solidarity payments composition in an upcoming post.

The remaining Net Revenue, which amounted to €3 040.3 million in 2021/22, is then split between the participating clubs (93.5%) and UEFA (6.5%). Once again, this topic will be further explored in our next post in the CAP App.