The Europa League may be the lesser of the continental competitions, however, the importance of winning the competition has grown significantly as the winners will qualify directly to the Champions League group stages.
Unsurprisingly, the money on offer for winning the competition doesn’t compare to it’s older cousin, because Europe’s premier competition is awash with cash from lucrative commercial and television deals.
However, there is a huge disparity between both European club competitions – with the winner of the Champions League potentially walking away with a maximum of €57.2m (£50.8m) compared to the Europa League champions of €15.71m (£13.95m).
A group stage win in the Europa League will give a team €360,000 (£319,000) whilst a draw will get €120,000 (£106,600) and participation gets a club €2.6m (£2.3m).
Remarkably, if a team won the Europa League and in doing so won every one of their group stage games, they would take home less than a team that went out in the Champions League group stage with two wins under their belt.
Winning a group game in the Champions League is worth a €1.5m (£1.33m) bonus, whilst a draw earns you €500,000 (£444,000) and just competing in the group stage earns €12.7m (£11.28m).
Winners – €6.5m (£5.77m)
Runners-up – €3.5m (£3.11m)
Semi-finalists – €1.6m (£1.42m)
Quarter-finalists – €1m (£888,000)
Round of 16 – €750,000 (£666,000)
Round of 32 – €500,000 (£444,000)
Group Stage – €2.6m (£2.3m)
The total winnings in the tournament are cumulative, so you continue picking up each reward as you move through the competition.
Maximum winnings are based on a side winning every group game in the competition and then going on to lift the trophy come the end of the final.