CHAMPIONS LEAGUE CHASING THE CASH:BARCELONA'S THIRD appearance in four seasons at this stage of the Champions League doesn't come even close to hiding the fact it is the English clubs, emboldened by their recent success and increasingly anxious to maintain it, that are reasserting the grip they held on the competition prior to the Heysel disaster.
Liverpool (four), Nottingham Forest (two) and Aston Villa (one) won seven European titles between them in the eight years prior to the night in 1985 when the Merseysiders were beaten by Juventus in a game that was entirely overshadowed by the deaths of 39 supporters and the injuries caused to hundreds more inside the Brussels stadium.
It was the early 1990s before English clubs played in the competition again and it was the tail end of that decade before they truly found their way back in from the wilderness.
Between the 1991/92 season, when Arsenal were beaten by Benfica in the second round, and 1995/96 season, when Blackburn were humiliated by finishing last in a group that included Spartak Moscow, Legia Warsaw and Rosenborg, no English side made it even to the last eight.
In 1997 Manchester United broke the run with Alex Ferguson’s men progressing to the semi-finals before losing to eventual champions Borussia Dortmund and having fallen a year later on away goals to Monaco at the previous hurdle, the club made it to the summit with their dramatic injury-time victory over Bayern Munich in 1999.
Spanish and Italian clubs continued to be the more consistent performers during the next few seasons but, thanks to burgeoning television revenues, their English rivals’ growing financial muscle attracted more and more foreign stars to the Premiership.
The rate of English progress built steadily and during the past years they have been dominant, taking 12 of the 20 available semi-final slots compared to La Liga’s four and the once mighty Serie A’s three.
The rewards available from the club game’s most lucrative competition are such that it has become the primary target for most of the continent’s leading sides, although the English teams increasingly find themselves in something of a bind with regard to it.
United, Arsenal and Chelsea lie first, third and eighth in the list of the world’s most valuable clubs compiled recently by Forbes magazine, and second (behind Real Madrid), sixth and fifth respectively in Deloitte’s most recent report on clubs’ annual earnings. In comparison to their European counterparts, however, they have each built up huge amounts of debt in one way or another in recent years and all would struggle to survive the sudden loss of Champions League cash.
Last year’s remarkable success helped United post annual profits of almost €100 million but their parent company, Red Football, still managed to lose €58.2 million, not least because it had to make repayments on debts of just a fraction short of that sum and total borrowings – used, for the most part, by the Glazers to fund their purchase of the club – now stand at around €725 million.
Arsenal, meanwhile, confirmed debts of just over €350 million in November and the club has been affected by the property slump in the wake of its decision to play an active part in the redevelopment of its former home, Highbury Stadium, for residential purposes.
The club insists that no money generated by the football side of its operation will be required to pay the debt – which was obtained on substantially better terms than some of United’s – but the anticipated injection of cash from apartment sales now seems a very long way off.
Chelsea’s situation is different again. While Arsenal kept spending on players to a minimum, diverting resources to the building of their new stadium and United were able, at least in part, to fund substantial spending on players through revenue, the Stamford Bridge outfit have played catch-up to the tune of some €150 million in net fees plus substantially more in wages than any of their rivals with their owner’s chequebook.
The club makes much of its lack of “external” debt while striving to play down the significance of the €650 million in loans from owner Roman Abramovich currently mentioned in its accounts. The club continues to trade at a substantial loss and so its debts mount but as long as the Russian doesn’t look for his money back there is nothing to be paid.
The hitch being, of course, that he can call in the entire amount at 18 months’ notice and, after a couple of tough years on other fronts, there is absolutely no telling whether he might tire of the club in the event that a Champions League title continues to evade it or simply decide to walk away in the aftermath of a victory he reckoned could not be topped.
What seems certain in the meantime is that Chelsea, like the other English clubs, need to win in Rome on May 27th rather more than Barcelona do.
Champions League: The Money Trail
How the Champions League cash stacks up
Qualification: €3 million
Group stage participation: €2.4 million
Each group stage win: €600,000
Each group stage draw: €300,000
Reaching last 16: €2.2 million
Reaching last four: €2.5 million
Semi-finals: €3 million
Reaching final: €4 million
Winning final: €3 million
Winning club would expect to amass around €22 million in prize money.
Additionally, research carried out on behalf of the competition sponsors suggested the winning club could expect to earn around €10 million in market pool (TV revenue weighted in favour of sides which bring in the most cash from broadcasters), €19 million in ticket revenue, €14 million in commercial and sponsorship revenues, €15 million in increased squad value and up to €30 million in other, longer term "premiums", giving a total potential value of some €110 million.
