By the end of the week, Hearts will know who stands between them and a place in the Europa League group stage.
FC Zurich and Linfield go head-to-head in Switzerland on Thursday night, when they play the second leg of their third qualifying round tie. The Swiss champs ran out 2-0 winners in Belfast last week thanks to goals from Tosin Aiyegun and Wilfried Gnonto at Windsor Park.
Bar a stunning comeback by David Healy’s side, then Robbie Neilson will in all likelihood be preparing his players to face Zurich. The Jambos are set to face them at St Gallen’s Kyburnpark on Thursday, August 18 due to a concert being played at Stadion Letzigrund the following evening. The return leg takes place at Tynecastle a week later. The capital club head into the clash knowing that regardless of the result, they’ll have group stage football to look forward to. Win, and it's in the Europa League.
Lose, and they drop into the Europa Conference League. There is a difference in terms of standard of opposition, but also prize money on offer. However, the differential is not as much as you might think.
Twitter account @SPFLTurnover has crunched the numbers and how they break down in each competition. All clubs taking part in the group stage of each competition are awarded starting fees, performance-related fixed amounts, coefficient-related amounts and and variable amounts related to market pool.
Europa League
25 per cent allocated to starting fees (£98,79m)
30 per cent performance related fixed amounts (£117,689m)
15 per cent coefficient related (£58, 866m)
30 per cent variable amounts (£17,689m)
Europa Conference League
40 per cent allocated to starting fees (£79,344m)
40 percent performance related fixed amounts (£97,344m)
10 per cent coefficient-based amounts (£19,833m)
10 per cent variable amounts £19,833m)
The variable amounts will depend on ticket sales, TV revenue etc. But starting fees are fixed and Hearts can affect how much performance related prize money they will receive. Their coefficient share will depend on who else is drawn in their group.
Europa League
Starting fee - £3.063m
Performance fees - £531,652 per win, £177, 217 per draw
Coefficient fees - Lowest ranked team receives one share of £111,416 with a share added for each ranking.
Europa Conference League
Starting fee - £2,481m
Performance fees - £421,985 per win, £140,109 per draw.
Coefficient fees - The lowest ranked team will earn a share of £37,557 with a share added for each ranking.
The breakdown means that the maximum the Tynecastle club will rake in from the Europa League, in the unlikely event they win all six matches, is £6,252m.
Even a solitary point from all of their group stage fixtures nets them more than £3.5million in prize money alone.
In the Conference League, full points would earn them just over £5million, while a draw rakes in £2.62 million, which is before variables such as TV revenue and coefficient fees are taken into account.
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