Celtic face losing out on about £25million after dropping out of the Champions League.
The Scottish champions have the chance to make up some of the losses with a strong Europa League run, but they failed to reach the last 16 of that tournament last season.
Here, we break down the financial cost of their 5-1 defeat by LASK.
Entry fee
Champions League qualification is worth a flat rate of £15.9m compared with the Europa League fee of £3.7m. Celtic will also bank a similar amount for participating in the Champions League play-offs, meaning they are about £8.5m worse off as a starting point.
Performance bonuses
In general, there are about four-and-a-half times as many performance-related payments open to Champions League teams as opposed to the Europa League. A Champions League win is worth £1.8m while a draw banks £600,000. The equivalent figures in the Europa League are about £390,000 and £130,000. There is a difference of 300,000 euros per place above the bottom in the table.
Celtic finished 21st in their table in the past two seasons, both in the Champions League and Europa League. Based on recent results and another 21st-placed finish, the Hoops face losing out on about £5m in results and £4m in league-table bonuses.
Celtic have fallen to German opposition in the knockout round play-offs for the last two seasons. The difference in the bonuses for reaching that stage is about £600,000.
In total, the Hoops could realistically lose about £10m in performance-related income, although they have the chance to limit the difference with a strong performance in the Europa League.
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Broadcasting and ranking income
Again, the Champions League offers four-and-a-half times the pool of money available than the Europa League. Income depends on the country’s broadcasting value, the number of clubs competing from each country, and clubs’ recent performances in Europe. Each place above the bottom in the Champions League is worth £830,000 more than the Europa League. However, Celtic will be higher up the table in the Europa League than the Champions League, and the difference from the past two campaigns was only about £2million less in the lower competition.
Gate receipts
Celtic charged £44 more for an adult four-match Champions League package two years ago than they did for the subsequent Europa League campaign. The difference in hospitality packages was greater. The difference across the stadium would work out at about £3.3m based on another five-game campaign.
Conclusion
Based on performances over the past two years, Celtic are set to lose out on close to £25m following Tuesday’s defeat, and they lost the chance to unlock further riches. The difference in reaching the last 16 in each competition is more than £8m.
However, they have scope to cut the gap if they have a strong Europa League campaign. When they lost to Basel in the Champions League play-offs under Martin O’Neill 24 years ago, they went on to reach the UEFA Cup final.
A Europa League final place is worth about £6m this season, while extra gate receipts on another lengthy run would add up.
