Uefa’s Women’s Champions League revamp includes cash boost and VAR
The Women’s Champions League will provide a €24m (£20.8m) cash boost to teams across Europe as part of the competition’s revamp for next season, when VAR will be introduced.
Uefa has also agreed 23% of the €24m available via “solidarity payments” will go to women’s teams not taking part in the tournament but whose leagues are represented in the competition.
Nadine Kessler, Uefa’s chief of women’s football, said: “After more than three years of dialogue and consultation with our national associations, clubs and the European Club Association, we would like to thank everyone involved wholeheartedly for their contributions. Each one of these changes are driven by a united vision and ensure we are all moving in the same direction – forwards.”
The new money has been boosted by a first cross-subsidy from the men’s Champions League – believed to be about €10m. Claire Bloomfield, head of women’s football at the European Club Association, said: “This is an extraordinary moment in the history of women’s club competitions and testament to what a collaborative approach between ECA and Uefa can accomplish.
“The cross-subsidy from men’s European club competitions, vastly improved prize money, plus a progressive approach to the competition’s new media and sponsorship rights, will significantly change the financial reality for women’s clubs throughout Europe.”
From next season the competition is being expanded to include a group stage for the first time, with centralised sponsorship and media rights from the group stage onwards “to further professionalise the competition”. Teams playing in the group stage will receive a minimum of €400,000, at least five times more than the amounts paid to teams reaching the equivalent stage – the last 16 – in the current competition.
The overall winners could receive up to €1.4m. The European governing body has also introduced a rule which will allow teams to adjust their squad lists should a player become pregnant or be about to take or return from maternity leave. A “B-list” will also allow clubs to supplement squad lists with young players who meet certain criteria. A new homegrown rule is also to be introduced from the 2022-23 season.
“Today’s announcement represents a giant step forward for football,” the Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, said. “The competition’s new financial distribution model will strengthen the entire professional women’s game across Europe.
“The development of women’s football should not be driven by short-term gain but a long-term vision. Thanks to the solidarity payments at the heart of this project and the increased rewards, every last euro generated by the Women’s Champions League and even more will go back into the women’s game.”