By Christine Oughton (19/0525)
In the first of a week’s coverage of articles from eleven Impetus Football writers in the build up to this year’s UWCL final, Christine Oughton reviews the financial specifics of the competition.
The UEFA Women’s Champions League (UWCL) final between Arsenal and Barcelona in Lisbon on 24 May 2025 will not only determine which team are crowned champions of Europe, but also the financial spoils. Running in parallel with the allocation of sporting honours in the UWCL, UEFA’s financial allocation model determines how much participating and non-participating clubs receive. This financial allocation will shape the ability of clubs to compete in the forthcoming 2025-26 season.
The winners of the final will walk away with €350,000 and the runners-up €250,000, plus well over a further €1 million each from the fixed payments, group stage and knockout stages. To put that in context, the prize money from the final alone would likely cover a good part of the transfer fee of Jill Roord, Gabi Nunes, Kiera Walsh, Laia Aleixandri, Mariona Caldenty or Emily Fox. In addition, the finalists have gate money from some well attended pre-final matches with crowds of over 30,000 and 40,000. All told, sporting success in the UWCL brings in income that contributes to further success for the top clubs.
In an attempt to promote solidarity and to prevent the UWCL undermining the competitive balance of national leagues, UEFA’s financial model requires “solidarity” payments to be made to non-participating clubs. The question is, are these solidarity payments enough?
Of the total €24 million UWCL revenue to be distributed in the 2024-25 season, €5.6 million has been earmarked for non-participating clubs. This money is distributed to the 50 national associations that have at least one participating club in the competition. Solidarity payments to national leagues are intended to be divided equally across clubs in the top league, and are earmarked for the development of the game. National associations may also choose to distribute the money more widely to lower leagues.
With 50 participating national leagues and, say, 10 non-participating clubs in a league (the number of clubs varies across national leagues), non-participating clubs will receive around €11,200 each on average if the payments are confined to the top tier. In practice it’s a bit more complicated, as solidarity payments are meritocratically linked to the performance of a league’s participating clubs. Still, on average, non-participating clubs will receive less than 1% of the revenue going to the finalists, which is barely enough to hire one trainer one to two days per week. Progressive distribution to the second tier or beyond will spread the money more thinly with more clubs benefiting, but by a smaller amount – less for training and development in the top league, but more for the second league, though the amounts are low for both leagues.
Women’s football has grown substantially in the last few years. It is an undoubted success story: gates, viewing figures, commercial income and interest are all on the rise and most expect this to continue, but there are signs that the elite UWCL clubs are pulling away from the rest of the clubs in their leagues. The Union of European Clubs has called for greater solidarity payments. There is a need to enhance competitive balance within and across leagues to maximise interest in the game. Closely fought relegation battles and league title races maintain interest in matches throughout the season and generate more revenue. Maintaining and enhancing competitive balance will require more redistribution as the game develops. This can be done against growing revenue streams so all benefit.
Due to the ban from 1921-1971 women’s football was not able to develop, as the men’s game did, in an era of equal division of TV income within and across leagues and gate sharing that helped lower-placed clubs and lower leagues. Those redistribution mechanisms enabled the men’s game to expand across the pyramid. National and regional associations, like The FA and UEFA, are the guardians of the pyramid and they can and should do more to promote the development of the women’s game within and across leagues right down to the grassroots. The prospect of rising revenues offers a golden opportunity for all to benefit. More redistribution earmarked for development, promotes competitive balance, generates fan interest and brings more revenue. It’s a win-win.
UWCL revenues are set to grow by 57% in 2025-26 from €24 million to €37.7 million but solidarity payments will only increase from €5.6 million to €6.2 million representing a fall in percentage terms from 23% to 16%. This effect will be tempered by the fact that the inaugural UEFA Women’s Europa Cup means there will be more participating clubs, but non-participating clubs will see financial gaps widen.
It’s time for UEFA, The FA and national leagues to rethink the distribution rules to further promote the development of women’s football. This can be used alongside other measures e.g. the spreading of best practice via support and improved licensing to help smaller clubs develop their revenue streams,and greater access to larger stadia. Arsenal has led the way in showing how access to a club’s main stadium can significantly enhance revenue and the fan base. Other clubs can and should follow suit, including via developing new stadia as in the case of Brighton Hove Albion. Such measures will help grow revenue and attract more investment in women’s football.
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