Despite their elimination from the Champions League, Manchester City could still earn over £100 million in prize money for reaching the quarterfinals.
Despite losing to Real Madrid in the Champions League due to penalties, Manchester City will not be defending their championship this year, but they will still likely win at least £75 million from the competition.
City was the defending champion going into the competition, and they had already won the UEFA Super Cup in August when they defeated Sevilla in Athens.
They defeated RB Leipzig, Red Star, and Young Boys with a perfect record in the group stages. In the last 16, they defeated FC Copenhagen twice with a score of 3-1 to secure a quarterfinal matchup with Real.
A 1-1 draw at home on Wednesday forced penalties and City’s elimination from the Champions League before the semi-final stage for the first time in four seasons, but the thrilling 3-3 draw in Madrid preserved City’s record of scoring three goals in every Champions League match thus far this season.
Even though City is eliminated from Europe, they have already received at least £48 million for making it to the quarterfinals and will likely receive over £50 million from the remaining prize money.
City had already earned €4.5 million (£3.84 million) for winning the Super Cup and €15.64 million (£13.33 million) for making it back to the group stage when they joined the Champions League.
Their flawless group stage performance gained £2.39 million for every three points, for a maximum prize money haul of £14.32 million. Additionally, qualifying for the round of sixteen added €9.6 million (£8.18 million) to the total prize fund.
A spot in the quarterfinal draw and a safe passage past Copenhagen entitle City to an additional €10.6m (£9.04m), which means the Blues can budget for £48.71m from their Champions League campaign.
The city will then be eligible to receive a portion of two big reward pots. The first is based on the 10-year UEFA co-efficient of the teams; the 32 clubs that qualified for the competition are divided among themselves according to their final season rankings, with a total of €600.6 million.
Each spot will receive a share of €1.137 million, up to a maximum of 32 shares, or €36.38 million (£31.01 million), with the lowest club receiving one share.
City was ranked fourth in the world before the quarterfinals, after Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, and Barcelona. Barcelona will also be eliminated in the round of eight; thus, the coefficients will be determined at the end of the season.
This will allow teams like Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain to move up the standings. However, City would receive an additional €32.973 million (£28.11 million) if they finished in fourth place.
Dortmund and PSG would still receive £26.28 million for being sixth in the standings even if they passed City.
Last but not least, there is the market pool that is contingent on TV broadcasts, which will allocate €300.3 million to teams based on the frequency of their TV appearances.
In total, City knows they have £76.82m, which includes up to £28.11m from the co-efficient pot in addition to £48.71m.
That might be closer to £100 million, depending on what they are entitled to from the TV broadcast pot.
Although City received £115 million from the prize fund last season, they did use the prize money and television revenue to play three additional games.
They could have raised their prize money by an incredible £27.72 million if they had won the competition this season, in addition to the higher portion from the TV pot for making it to the semifinals, final, and final.
