L'Équipe: Ligue 1's three Champions League clubs set for significant UEFA shares, PSG to receive €63.97 million first

For French clubs, the revenue gap between domestic competitions and European competitions has been widening every season. Although the Ligue 1+ platform has launched, the French audiovisual rights market remains in crisis, and the income distributed to French clubs remains limited, with further reductions caused by broadcaster disputes and adjustments (a reduction of €78.5 million due to beIN Sports' withdrawal, and another €85 million decrease after the termination of DAZN's early cancellation compensation arrangement).

In contrast, UEFA has prepared an astonishing amount of funding for this European cycle: a total of €4.4 billion. UEFA will distribute €3.317 billion to clubs participating in its European competitions, of which €2.467 billion, or 74.38%, is reserved only for the Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup. For Paris Saint-Germain, Lille and Lens, this is undoubtedly a major boost, as they will represent France in the Champions League.

UEFA will distribute this large sum to the 36 teams that qualify for the league phase, using a formula built around three pillars. The first is the historical bonus, which has long been familiar in the Champions League: each team receives an appearance fee of €18.62 million after entering the competition, even before hearing the Champions League anthem for the first time.

In addition to this fixed income, there are performance bonuses. Each win is worth €2.1 million and each draw earns €700,000. Combined with final ranking bonuses and increasing knockout-stage bonuses (€11 million for the round of 16, €12.5 million for the quarter-finals, €15 million for the semi-finals, €24.5 million for the champion and €18 million for the runner-up), the champion can earn up to €110 million.

Finally, the new 'value pillar' (details and explanations are available on UEFA's website) combines the former 'market share' (the value of the national market) and 'coefficient' (the club's individual coefficient). It takes into account domestic television rights revenue and clubs' historical coefficients over the past five and ten years. Thanks to French broadcasters, especially Canal+, which pays more than €450 million annually for Champions League broadcasting rights, French clubs therefore receive a clear advantage.

With this distribution system and their status as double champions, Paris Saint-Germain are far ahead financially.

Before their first match begins, PSG can secure at least €63.97 million. According to projections revealed by L'Équipe, if they reach the quarter-finals, PSG's revenue will rise to between €80 million and €100 million; if they eventually win the title, total revenue could rise again to €150 million.

Lille, led by Olivier Létang, are expected to receive between €60 million and €70 million, and with a European miracle they could even reach €105 million. Lens, the club managed by Jean-Louis Leca and Benjamin Parot, are projected to earn between €50 million and €60 million, which is already far above the combined domestic broadcasting revenue they would receive over an entire season, or even multiple seasons.