THE Big Six will be offered a huge chunk of a £6BILLION fund by Uefa – as a reward for snubbing the Super League.
Top-flight rivals were angered by the fines of just £1.44million up front and up to a further £6m announced by Uefa on Friday.
But their frustration is likely to grow after it emerged Uefa is on the brink of agreeing a massive new funding package backed by London-based Centricus Asset Management.
That will let Uefa pay £6bn to improve prize money for the Champions League and the other two European cups in future years.
This season’s Champions League finalists, Chelsea and Manchester City, will each gross more than £110m from the competition alone, while Liverpool will take around £81m for reaching the last eight.
Manchester United, despite their group-phase exit, will still earn £65m from this season if they win the Europa League final against Villarreal on May 26.
But those figures will be dwarfed once the new funding package is confirmed, offering the Big Six Champions League qualifiers the chance to pay off their Covid debts virtually immediately.
The precise figures for the new revenue distribution model for next season – which sees the launch of the third-tier Europa Conference League – have yet to be determined by Uefa.
Although the federation does intend to increase ‘solidarity payments’ to smaller nations and clubs.
Yet it will still see a potential vast upswing in the money going to the top-end clubs, which explains why the Big Six were all so keen to confirm their ‘reintegration measures’ with Uefa.
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As part of the deal, all six Prem rebels have reapplied to join the European Club Association, which worked with Uefa on the model for an expanded Champions League from 2024 before being stabbed in the back by former chief and Juventus President Andrea Agnelli.
Yet despite being threatened with a TWO-YEAR Euro ban for not renouncing the breakaway, Juve, Real Madrid and Barcelona have gone on the offensive.
The rebel trio claimed they had suffered ‘unacceptable third-party pressure, threats and offence to abandon the project’.
They also accused the nine recanting rebels, including the Prem six, of putting themselves into an ‘inconsistent and contradictory position’ by agreeing terms with Uefa.
In a joint statement, Real, Barca and Juve added: “This is intolerable under the rule of law.
“The 12 founding clubs also acknowledged that the Super League was a unique opportunity to offer fans around the world the best possible show and to reinforce global interest in the sport.
“We are fully aware of the diversity of reactions to the Super League initiative and, consequently, of the need to reflect on the reasons for some of them.
“We are ready to reconsider the proposed approach, as necessary.
“However, we would be highly irresponsible if we abandoned our mission to provide effective and sustainable answers to the existential questions that threaten the football industry.”
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
