THE BLOG BY CPD FOOTBALL | The World of Indian football and beyond by Chris Punnakkattu Daniel

UEFA Champions League semi-finalists earn €1.8 billion between them annually

UEFA Champions League

UEFA Champions League

This year’s four UEFA Champions League semi-finalists are four of the most powerful and richest clubs on the planet and money really does do the talking when it comes to fighting for Europe’s biggest prize.

FC Barcelona, FC Bayern Munich, Juventus and Real Madrid generate €1.8 billion of income between them annually according to Deloitte and Forbes figures highlighted recently in Ticketbis.net’s brilliant ‘The money making’ analysis of the four European giants.

However, simply being the richest doesn’t guarantee absolute success on the field of course, with football’s biggest earners Real Madrid (€549.5 million annual income) having been beaten in the first leg of their semi-final tie by Italian champions Juventus, who earn €279.8 million a year.

Bayern Munich earn slightly more than Barcelona per year – €487.5 million, compared with €484.6 million – but the Germans were hammered 3-0 by Barça at the Nou Camp in their semi-final first leg.

Real Madrid makes the highest profits of any club in the world, but it is Barcelona that made the biggest outlay for its star signings (Luis Suarez and Neymar cost more than €150million combined) and that pays its star player the most – nobody earns as much as Leo Messi. The Argentine genius is said to earn around €65 million per year and he chipped in with two goals against Bayern to add to his value.

The fascinating Ticketbis.net study also highlights that five of the richest ten clubs in the world come from the Premier League according to Deloitte, Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, yet none of these sides were able to make it through to the quarter-final stages, let alone the semis, of this years Champions League.

With a large portion of sponsorship money for large clubs coming from Middle East carriers such as Emirates, Qatar, Etihad and Turkish Airlines. These airlines which are dominating sponsorship deals and also within the airline industry, with Dubai overtaking Heathrow to become world’s busiest airport based on data from according to figures from Airports Council International.