Champions League prize money 2025-26 and how much Newcastle United have already pocketed

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Newcastle United are competing in the Champions League in the 2025-26 season and there is a lot of money to be won.

The Champions League is the competition every footballer wants to play in and the most famous trophy in the entire club game.

Newcastle United are back in the prestigious tournament in 2025-26 and Eddie Howe will be hopeful of taking his side further than they did last time.

Though fans, players and coaches will be dreaming of glory on the pitch, the financial benefits of being in the tournament cannot be ignored either and a massive prize pot is on offer for clubs.

Here’s how much is on offer in the Champions League and how Newcastle can earn it.

• Champions League: Newcastle United European fixture schedule and how to watch every league phase game

Champions League prize money 2025-26

There is a massive prize pot on offer in the Champions League in the 2025-26 season, with a grand total of £2.15 billion being distributed between the 36 competing sides, making it extremely lucrative for Newcastle.

The prize money is divided into three different pots, from which Newcastle will earn revenue throughout their European campaign. They are:

Here’s how Newcastle can earn money from the three different streams:

Equal share participation – 27.5%

A huge pot of £592m has been set aside for all 36 teams that have qualified for the Champions League and they will each receive a guaranteed £16.45m for their participation.

Even if a team were to lose every single game in the league phase, they would still have that prize money in the bank, and that doesn’t include commercial revenue from competing in the games.

Performance-based prize money – 37.5%

The biggest percentage of the total prize money comes from the performance-related pot, and there are multiple ways to get a slice of the pie.

Every victory in the league phase is worth £1.83m, so if a team won all of their eight fixtures, they could bring in an extra £14.64m.

In addition, a draw will earn each side £610,102, with the extra £610,102 not awarded for a draw proportionately increasing the next way teams can earn money in the league phase: their position in the table.

The league ranking bonus is divided into equal shares worth an initial £239,727, though the more games that are drawn, the higher that figure will be.

The team that finishes bottom of the table in 36th place will receive one share of the prize money, the team that finishes above them in 35th will get two, and on it goes until the team that finishes top gets 36 shares.

As a result, whoever wins the group will pocket a minimum of a further £8.63m in prize money, which will increase with every draw.

Finally, the 24 teams that advance to the knockout stages will be awarded a bigger cash prize for each round they reach in the tournament.

The prize money for each round is:

Paris Saint-Germain, who Newcastle will face in their final league phase fixture, won the tournament in 2025 and pocketed a gigantic £70.8m in prize money just from their guaranteed participation fee and their performance-related bonuses.

In comparison, Newcastle earned a paltry £100,000 in prize money from winning the Carabao Cup final in 2025.

PSG’s winnings do not include money from the third and final pot, the Two-tiered value pillar, as that figure is much tougher to work out.

Two-tiered value pillar – 35%

Making up £754.26m of the prize pot, the two-tiered value pillar was introduced with the new format in 2024.

It does not take performance in the current season into account, but rather the distribution of TV money and club coefficients.

The prize money is divided into two sections: the sale of media rights in European markets and the sale of them in non-European markets.

The percentage of prize money which goes into each stream then depends on how much UEFA earned from their media rights sales in 2024. As a result, if European markets contributed 60% of media rights purchases, then the split would be 60% European and 40% non-European.

That’s how the funds are divided and this is how Newcastle can actually earn those funds.

How much Newcastle can earn from the European part is determined by:

• England’s contribution to UEFA’s media & broadcasting revenue
• Newcastle’s five-year UEFA coefficient ranking

Newcastle’s share of the non-European part depends on:

• Newcastle’s 10-year UEFA coefficient ranking

At present, it’s nearly impossible to determine how much Newcastle will earn from this pillar.

Newcastle United’s UEFA coefficient ranking

Newcastle have not been a major force in European competition for a number of years.

The Toon’s Champions League campaign of 2023-24 was their first participation in a UEFA competition since they were in the 2012-13 Europa League, and they finished bottom of their group.

As a result, they do not have a good coefficient ranking at present. They sit 84th in UEFA’s table, with a score of 14.000.

However, they are instead given a score of 19.312, which is 20% of England’s coefficient score, and was used for seeding purposes.

How much Newcastle United have earned in the Champions League in 2025-26

With so much money on offer, it’s easy to see why clubs are so desperate to compete in the Champions League.

Yes, it’s the most prestigious tournament in club football, but it is also one of the most lucrative, only being gazumped by the Club World Cup this past summer.

Newcastle have already pocketed £16.45m alone just for qualifying and after picking up three wins over Royale Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica and Athletic Club, their total earnings are £21.94m so far.