Barcelona and Manchester United earned over 50 million euros ($72 million) each after reaching the Champions League final last season, European soccer's governing body UEFA said Tuesday. Last season's 32 Champions League teams received a total of 754.1 million euros from a combination of performance-related payments and the television pool. United was the biggest earner, with 53.20 million euros ($76.7 million) comprising more than 27 million for its performances and another 25.9 million from the television pool, UEFA said. Despite winning the final 3-1, Barcelona's earnings were slightly less at 51 million euros, as its performance-related payments were 30.7 million but it collected only 20.3 million from television. UEFA said other top earners were Chelsea €44.5 million ($64.1 million), Schalke 04 €39.75 million ($57.3 million), Real Madrid €39.3 million ($56.6 million), Inter Milan (37.98 million), Bayern Munich (32.56 million) and Tottenham Hotspur (31.13 million). MSK Zilina from Slovakia, which lost all six group matches, received €7.4 million (10.7 million dollars). UEFA added that money from the centralized television pool was distributed according to the value of the teams in their own national market. All clubs were entitled to a minimum 7.2 million euros from the group stage. Further performance bonuses and participation fees were awarded in each of the knockout stages. A further €125 million ($180 million) was shared among national associations and clubs which played in the qualifying rounds.
