Riches at offer for the bounty hunters..
THE Champions League is awash with silly money, which is what makes it so serious.
It is why Celtic are not only playing for football reasons this evening and next Tuesday – beating Astana is going to make the club a lot richer.
Here is a breakdown of what Celtic could earn, although some figures have still to be confirmed.
This is the round Brendan Rodgers’s side are in. If they beat the men from Kazakhstan they will earn €2m and €3m if they lose to Astana.
Uefa have a fixed amount of €761.9 to be shared among the teams who make it to the group stages.
Each of the 32 teams last season were guaranteed €12.7m. The “performance bonus” was €1.5m for every win and €500,000 for every draw. The only question is by how much it will go up this time…
And if Brendan Rodgers can do what Gordon Strachan and Neil Lennon did before him and reach the last 16, they’ll earn €6m.
Of course, this is not the only revenue. The television market pool share made €14.3m last year, a figure which is estimated to rise to around €17m for Celtic.
This means, in pounds, shilling and pence, that should the Scottish champions prevail over their next two matches, they will rake in at least £28.9m, a figure which does not include gate receipts, hospitality packages or matchday revenue.
Nor does it include a single point being won over six matches and the three at home are guaranteed 60,000 sell-outs.
Celtic gave not been in pot three since the 2008/09 season but this time there is a real chance that is where they will end up if they get past Astana. After the early eliminations of Dynamo Kiev and Ajax, Celtic are now the highest placed team in pot four.
This means that should Sevilla, Napoli, Liverpool or Olympiacos lose their play-off ties over the next week, Celtic will be nudged into pot three.
Liverpool beat German side Hoffenheim 2-1 last night while tonight Greek champions Olympiacos take on Croatian’s HNK Rijeka and five-time Europa League winners Sevilla face Istanbul Basaksehir.
A country’s representation in the Champions League is determined by its Uefa coefficient ranking at the start of the previous season, which is calculated over a five-year basis.