The prize money Celtic could’ve had from Europe this season

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The European prize-money Celtic have received this season once again highlights the importance of Champions League football.

Celtic were knocked out at the third qualifying round of Europe’s premier competition by AEK Athens. It was a shock defeat considering the quality of both sides, and a real missed chance. Athens went on to knock out Videoton in the playoff round to reach the Champions League.

Celtic, of course, ended up winning a playoff to qualify for the Europa League after beating Suduva. That only earned the club €2.92million. Compare that to Athens, who managed to rake in a staggering €15.25m. It’s not even close, with the Greeks raking in over five times more than the Hoops just for qualification.

The Hoops would then go on to finish runners-up in the group. According to UEFA figures, that means Celtic secured a further €500k. It’s hardly much for managing to knock out both Rosenborg and Red Bull Leipzig.

Celtic’s performance in the group stage saw them manage three wins and three defeats. Those victories earned the Hoops a cool €570k each. In total when you combine all of Celtic’s prize-money from the Europa League, it adds up to just over €5.1m.

Still a big drop

So despite all of our hard work, we’ve banked just around a third of what AEK did just for qualifying for the CL. This, of course, doesn’t include revenue.

If Celtic had managed three wins and three draws in a Champions League group stage, they would’ve earned €8.1m on top of the €15.25m picked up for qualifying in the first place. That’s a grand total of €23.35m we would’ve missed out on.

Even if we had performed so poorly that we didn’t pick up a point in the CL, just qualifying still gives us three times what we got for the entire Europa League campaign.

Celtic’s three-match ticket package for the group stage was also £42 dearer last year due to being in the Champions League. So times that difference by 60,000, and the Hoops missed out on a further £2.5m in ticket sales if prices were the same as our last Champions League campaign.

That’s what makes the Champions League such a vital competition for us to be a part of. The earnings are significantly greater than that of the Europa League. Not doing the business against Athens and missing out on Videoton has cost us over €10m.

Hopefully, there are no such financial losses in this year’s qualifiers.