Crazy Money: Champions League Vs Copa Libertadores

The Copa Libertadores and the Champions League are without doubt the two most important competitions in club football worldwide.

For decades on end these two continents have been the home of football and have had by far the most successful clubs and national teams on the planet. Still in their own development stages, the likes of Asia, Africa and North America have rarely even come close to challenging.

World Cup Winners at international level have only ever come from Europe and South America, and that’s in 22 separate tournaments over the course of nearly a century.

Meanwhile at club level the Club World Cup winners have only ever come from these two continents as well.

From England to Germany and Argentina to Brazil these lands are hubs for football. They are full of adoring fans and historic clubs, towns and cities where football trumps over all else.

Today, these two tournaments are still massively important to their respective followers. In fact, the Copa Libertadores is as crucial, if not more-so, to the football fans of South America as the Champions League is to Europeans. What is the difference between winning either one of these prizes? The money.

The resounding difference in these competitions is the prize money that comes with it, and those winnings have a snowball effect on the quality of the competition in the years to come.

There are differences in style of play, geography and fanfare of course, but above all the thing that separates these two tournaments more than any other is the economics.

The financial disparity between the two competitions is quite frankly gobsmacking. For reaching the group stages of the UEFA Champions League alone a team will take home almost $17 million. On the other hand, if a South American team reaches the group stage of the Copa Libertadores, their prize money before a ball is kicked sits at $3 million. Almost six times less than the Champions League rate.

The competitions also give out prize money for group game victories. In Europe that prize money is just over 3$ million per three points. In South America a group stage win is worth just $300,000, over 10 times less the prize money. In fact if you draw a game in the UEFA Champions League group stage you earn over three times more than you would for a win in the Copa Libertadores.

In the Libertadores a place in the last 16 of the competition will gain you a further $1.25 million in prize money, where in the Champions League you will earn over an extra $10 million.

This sort of comparison in prize money shows the gap in economics between club football’s two biggest competitions. For that very reason the European sides have seen off their South American rivals with relative ease in Club World Cup clashes over the last few years.

Forbes