Europa League prize money

People often wonder why so little is thought of the Europa League by English teams.

Look at the prize money. Piddling amounts for the earlier rounds - probably don't cover expenses in playing. Then

• Round of 32: €200,000
• Round of 16: €350,000
• Quarter-finals: €450,000
• Semi-finals: €1,000,000
• Losing finalist: €2,500,000
• Winners: €5,000,000

So progressing from round of 32  all the way to winning the final will get you 6.6m euros (£5.6m). 4.1 m extra for making the final (£3.5m). 1.6m extra for reaching a semi (£1.35m).

Going into this weekend there were two premier league games left for the English clubs. I was looking at Stoke's position to see what they had to play for. We all know that clubs with nothing to play for - usually mid table sides - don't always put the effort in.

But now there's nearly £1m at stake for each league position. The last I saw was £800,000 per place. This doesn't happen in other European leagues.

Anyway, this is not just mathematically possible scenarios I'm looking at but easily possible ones.

Winning one game could put Stoke one place higher in the league. Even if they don't do badly and, say, they drew their last two games just a single win by three teams behind them could see them overtaken. So with just two games left, their final league position could differ by 4 places.

So that's potential prize money of £3.2m and the Europa will only beat that for reaching the final.
And that's when there's only 6 points to play for. When there are several league games left you could be looking realistically at £5m as the difference between, say, 8th and 14th and you're not going to risk that for an outside chance of making the Europa final. Common sense means you'll keep your best players for league games.

And then imagine the differences are even greater above 8 and below 14 when you're looking at potential loss of Premier League income with relegation or untold riches of Champions League qualification.

Follow the money.