How Man City could afford Jude Bellingham transfer bid by winning Champions League as prize money is broken down

MANCHESTER CITY could bank a staggering £117million from their Champions League run – to virtually cover the transfer cost of Jude Bellingham.

Pep Guardiola’s men have already banked just short of £100m for reaching the semis.

And a semi-final win over Real Madrid followed by becoming champions of Europe for the first time would add another huge windfall to the Etihad coffers.

But while City are eyeing history as well as the massive earnings, Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs were left staring at the black hole facing them without Champions League football next term.

Chelsea’s last eight run was worth £73.3m before gate receipts from five matches at Stamford Bridge.

That was significantly due to the £27m Chelsea earned from Uefa’s “historical coefficient” payment before a ball was kicked.

Liverpool earned £72.69m from their last 16 run, while Spurs, who had the lowest historical coefficient and “market pool” TV share, earned £57.5m.

By contrast, Manchester United can earn a maximum of less than £35m for winning the Europa League while West Ham’s Conference League campaign will be worth less than £20m.

City’s group stage efforts, including the coefficient and initial prize money, were worth £69.6m, with Guardiola’s team, as champions, taking a 40 per cent share of the initial £28.8m market pool fund.

Their knock-out wins have been worth a further £20.37m.

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Reaching the final would see City taking £9.6m of the remaining half of the market pool – as they would have played 13 of the total 39 matches involving English teams.

And winning in Istanbul would mean a further £17.63m, taking their potential total earnings to £117.2m.

With Borussia Dortmund wanting around £130m for England star Bellingham, it means City’s European exploits alone would almost cover the total fee – with payments actually likely to be split over the duration of any contract the midfielder signed.

And that would see the former Birmingham midfielder reunited with Erling Haaland at the Etihad.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk