Jurgen Klopp insisted once again that reaching the knockout stages of the Champions League should not be taken for granted.
It’s true that Liverpool’s run of six qualifications to the knockout rounds is “their longest consecutive qualifying streak” in Europe’s top competition, according to an Opta tweet.
6 – Liverpool have progressed from the group stage in all six of their UEFA Champions League campaigns under Jürgen Klopp, their longest run of successive qualifications in the competition. Know how. pic.twitter.com/I4yG47N87S
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) October 26, 2022
Looking at how UEFA has divided up the prize money at the various stages of the competition (courtesy Sporting News), the Reds still have plenty of incentive to go as far as they can in the competition.
How much could Liverpool earn?
Round of 16: £8.33m
Quarter-finals: £9.2m
Semi-finals: £10.85m
Runner-up (runner-up): £13.5m
Runner-up (Winner): £17.36m
Possible total (assuming Liverpool WIN the competition): £45.74m
And all this without taking into account the payments for retransmissions and coefficients that are made to the club, not to mention the income received from participation in the group stage.
Assuming we make it to Istanbul though, an earlier thread by economics expert Swiss Ramble on Twitter, examining the financial rewards of reaching the final in 2021/22, would suggest a grand prize awaits us in Turkey.
My model suggests the #LFC already earned around £102m (€117.6m) for reaching the Champions League final.
This includes a participation fee of €15.6 million, prize money of €66.3 million, a UEFA coefficient of €22.7 million and a TV pool of €17.1 million. euros minus the COVID reimbursement of 4.1 million euros. pic.twitter.com/1F25X4gHoS
— Swiss Ramble (@SwissRamble) May 24, 2022
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With this in mind, you can understand why so many commentators are interested in Liverpool taking the top four given the financial damage a catastrophic domestic campaign would cause.
Signs of late, despite a 1-0 loss to Nottingham Forest, would suggest we are generally on the up and on track to climb back up the table.
Ep63 of The Empire of the Kop podcast: Klopp’s ridiculous accusations of xenophobia, Núñez shining… and more!
