Good news for Europe’s ‘small’ clubs: on Wednesday 6 September, UEFA announced its decision to increase financial support for clubs not involved in European competitions. From next year, the redistribution of revenue from the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League will change at the same time as their competition format, with a mini-league replacing the current group stage for the period 2024-2027. Under the new agreement between UEFA and the European Club Association (ECA), the teams that do not qualify for these three lucrative competitions will share 7% of the revenue – mainly television rights – instead of 4% under the current formula. They will share a jackpot of 440 million euros per season, or 1.32 billion euros over the entire cycle. On the other hand, the share of revenue distributed to the clubs eliminated in the qualifying phase remains unchanged. It remains fixed at 3%. UEFA announced last year that it wanted to introduce greater sporting fairness. It is keeping its word.
