1,400,000 million euros. That will be the most a team can win this season in the Women's Champions League. The main phase of the competition begins this afternoon with Barcelona as the great favorite to retain the title won a few months ago against Wolfsburg in Eindhoven. The strange format of the tournament has also left him without some important rivals.. Only the champions of Spain, England, Germany and France go directly to the group stage, so during these weeks we have seen how important clubs such as Wolfsburg itself or Arsenal, semi-finalist of the last edition, have been left out in the rounds. previous.

Of the total budget of 24 million that UEFA has designated for the competition's prizes, the champion will get a maximum of 5.8% of the pot. The group stage, made up of 16 teams, has Barcelona and Madrid as Spanish representatives, without Levante, which was also eliminated in the matches at the beginning of the season.. The Blaugrana, with the Ballon d'Or winner Aitana Bonmatí, with Alexia Putellas and with the best squad in Europe, are the rival to beat.

The white team, for its part, arrives after a summer in which it has moved little, signing the Danish forward. The evolution of the young Linda Caicedo, 18, will mark part of her season. The Colombian was one of the sensations of the last World Cup and is one of the most promising players on the planet. In addition, Alberto Toril has footballers who have been vital in the World Cup won by Spain, such as Olga Carmona or Tere Abelleira. The whites, yes, start one step below Barça, Lyon, City or Chelsea.

The awards

But let's talk about money. UEFA has decided to maintain the economic distribution of last season in both the men's and women's Champions League.. If in the first it manages a prize budget of more than 2,000 million, in the second the figure remains at 24. If in the men's tournament the winner takes home 23 million just for winning the final, in the women's the achievement of triumphing in the decisive match barely gives 350,000 euros, to which we must add the income received from winning matches in the previous rounds.. The 16 teams that participate in the group stage receive 400,000 euros and there are bonuses of 50,000 for a victory and 17,000 for a draw. Reaching the quarterfinals means a prize of 160,000 euros, reaching the semifinals 180,000, being runner-up 200,000 and winning 350,000.

To give you an idea, any team in the men's Champions League receives 15.6 million just for participating in the group stage.. It is the forceful logic of the market. This past summer, Movistar paid 960 million to maintain the audiovisual rights of the men's competition in Spain, while DAZN bought in 2021 the rights to the women's Champions League throughout Europe until 2025 for about 8 million a year, according to Bloomberg.

The YouTube push

The audiences, although timid, have not stopped growing. The agreement between DAZN and YouTube, which during the last two seasons has shown the 61 matches each year openly through its platform, has benefited the exposure of the competition, which in the last year accumulated more than 50 million viewers, 14 more than in 2021-2022. But of course, not everything is about image, income is also needed.

That is why now the tournament faces an important step forward. DAZN has decided to start offering matches through its payment platform to “accelerate the increase in value of women's football”, as explained Verónica Diquatrro, executive director of the company.. A large part of its future will depend on how the public reacts, and pays, to watch the Women's Champions League.

The explosion of the World Cup

In Spain, the last Champions League final between Barça and Wolfsburg attracted 736,000 viewers on Spanish Television, a 7.3% audience share, while women's football experienced another explosion in the World Cup, with 5,599,000 pending viewers and 65.7% share. A figure as spectacular as it is unreal for the day-to-day life of the sport, which continues to maintain a very timid number of fans in the stands every weekend.. The growth, with specific peaks, is slow but constant at all levels, both in awards, sponsorships and agreements, such as the last one signed by professional soccer players in Spain that raises their minimum salary to 21,000 euros.. An important change that reflects the trend of recent years.

And the women's Champions League, for example, has had its own sponsors since 2018 and began to sell its audiovisual rights centrally since 2021, precisely with that agreement with DAZN.. Before, except for the final, each team tried to sell them as best they could and the sponsorships depended on the crumbs of the men's tournament.. Now those 24 million come from net income, from ticket sales, from UEFA's own investment (10 million of the 3,500 estimated budget) and from the item added from the men's Champions League solidarity fund.

Now, to play the group stage: Barça against Eintracht, Rosengard and Benfica and Madrid against Chelsea, Hacken and Paris FC.