How much has Champions League exit cost Celtic?

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Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell and finance director Eric RileyImage source, SNS
Image caption,

It was a painful night in Sweden for Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell and finance director Eric Riley

Celtic's 4-3 aggregate loss to Malmo in the Champions League play-off round is a blow to their ambitions this season.

They will now play in the group stage of the Europa League, Uefa's less prestigious club competition.

This will earn them millions of pounds but an awful lot less than victory over the Swedes would have guaranteed.

How much is the Europa League worth to Celtic?

This is the first year of a new Uefa cycle, so the financial rewards are greater than before.

Malmo earned £1.42m by beating Celtic; much more will come their way in the Champions League.

Celtic will have £2.13m to help ease their disappointment before they enter the Europa League, the prize money for which is broken down below:

Europa League prize money

Group stage fee

£1.74m

Group stage performance

£262,000 per win, £87,000 per draw

Group winners

£363,000, and £182,000 for runners-up

Round of 32

£363,000

Round of 16

£545,000

Quarter-finals

£727,000

Semi-finals

£1.09m

Final

£4.72m for winner and £2.54m for runner-up

So, even if Celtic do not gain a point in the Europa League they will be guaranteed £3.87m (£2.13m + £1.74m).

Clubs also earn money from the competition's market pool, which includes a share of TV money. This is tricky to predict as last season's figures are not yet available - and the same is true of the gate money taken by Celtic during their Europa League campaign last year.

But using a bit of educated guesswork, their combined value might be about £4m.

Image source, SNS
Image caption,

Celtic played in the Europa League last season after failing to reach the Champions League

So, if Celtic don't progress from the Europa League group stage they will earn about £8m, plus any prize money for wins and draws.

Celtic fans may wish to read through their fingers what follows.

Had the club qualified for the Champions League group stage they would have earned many millions more.

How much could Celtic have earned by beating Malmo?

From the group stage onwards the Champions League prize money is as follows:

Champions League prize money

Group stage fee

£8.52m

Group stage performance

£1.06m per win, £355,000 per draw

Round of 16

£3.9m

Quarter-finals

£4.26m

Semi-finals

£4.97m

Final

£10.65m for the winner, £7.45m for the runner-up

By way of comparison, Celtic earned £2.7m for winning the Scottish Premiership title last season.

In other words, prize money for the winning the Scottish title over 38 matches is about the same as two wins and two draws in the Champions League group stage.

Had Celtic progressed and not collected any points in the Champions League group stage, they would still have received £9.94m in prize money (£1.42m + £8.52m).

Further cash would have been earned from the competition's market pool, which represents 40% of total Champions League revenue. The figures cannot be accurately predicted, but using Celtic's most recent group stage campaign as a guide, in 2013-14 they received £5.79m.

One of the factors involved in the final amount is performance in that year's competition and on that occasion Celtic won only one game.

Celtic would have been able to count on a large home support for Champions League matches. Two seasons ago, the sale of 255,000 match tickets across the qualifiers and group stage games against AC Milan, Ajax and Barcelona generated more than £6.4m.

So, had Celtic beaten Malmo it would have been worth in excess of £21m to them (£9.94m in prize money + £5.79m market pool cash + £6m ticket sales = £21.73m).

With about £8m plus bonuses for wins and draws available in the Europa League, that disappointing performance in Malmo has cost them dearly - some £13m.

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