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Liverpool's pursuit of a return to the Champions League brings into the club's reach the "first opportunity to claim a share of the extra riches available" from the present UEFA TV deal, according to Martyn Ziegler of the LONDON TIMES. In the first year of the BT Sport deal during the '15-16 season, Arsenal and the two Manchester clubs each earned between €53M and €84M in Champions League prize money and TV cash from UEFA -- "significantly more" than Liverpool has ever earned from European competition. It is "not just the income directly" from UEFA that will be important for Liverpool -- the club's annual accounts show that more than £12M ($15.4M) a season is lost in matchday revenue when it is "not in either European competition." That difference is "likely to be significantly greater in the future due to the expansion of Anfield." But having five Premier League clubs in the group stage of the Champions League as a result of ManU winning the Europa League would mean the market pool -- the amount shared between the clubs of one country depending on the size of its TV deal with UEFA -- has to be "split five ways instead of four." The English market pool is about £130M ($166.4M), worth an average of £26M ($33.3M) to the five clubs but "split according to their final league position and how far they progress in Europe" (
LONDON TIMES, 8/23).
