Chelsea top ’21 prize money at $126 million

Geneva, May 11: Champions League winner Chelsea earned nearly 120 million euros (USD 126.5 million) from UEFA last season, topping the prize money list for European clubs published Wednesday.
That was just ahead of beaten finalist Manchester City, which received just over 119 million euros (USD 125.6 million) from a total fund of nearly 1.9 billion euros (USD 2 billion) shared by the 32 Champions League clubs. That total has risen to more than 2 billion euros (USD 2.1 billion) for the current and next two seasons.
Semifinalists Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain each got almost 110 million euros (USD 116 million), the only other clubs to earn a nine-figure sum from UEFA.
Chelsea’s total was at least 35 million euros (USD 37 million) more than Barcelona and Juventus, who lost in the round of 16 and then helped in the failed attempt to launch a Super League, which was designed to be more lucrative for top clubs.
Barcelona and Juventus were key leaders of the project which saw 12 elite clubs try to break away from UEFA control to create their own competition.
The UEFA list shows Barcelona earned less than 85 million euros ($90 million) and Juventus got less than 83 million euros ($88 million).
The lowest payment to a Champions League club was 18.45 million euros (USD 19.5 million) to Hungarian champion Ferencváros, which lost five of its six group-stage games. (AP)