NEWCASTLE’S Champions League pot of gold is set to be less than HALF of the Prem’s other three contenders.
Eddie Howe’s men have earned the club a place back in the European elite for the first time since the 2002-03 season under Bobby Robson.
But a full decade without any Euro football will hurt them when Uefa dole out the Champions League cash in September.
While Manchester City are assured of a minimum £58.06million before they even kick a ball, Newcastle may start with just £21.5m, less than half the likely fees paid to both Arsenal and Manchester United, who need one point from their final two games to book a top-four spot.
That is due to the Toon taking a tiny share of the controversial “ten-year historical coefficient pot”.
The £522m pot is divided on a sliding scale, with top-rated qualifiers Real Madrid taking £31.65m and City, fourth in the rankings, earning £28.67m.
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But Newcastle, due to their long European exile, have NO ranking points.
Instead, they will be assigned one fifth of the English coefficient of 37.635 — just 7.527 ranking points.
That almost certainly means Newcastle will be the lowest-ranked qualifiers and take just £989,000 from that pot. Manchester United will pick up £24.72m and Arsenal £21.75m.
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The total Champions League prize fund of £1.77billion per season is split into three portions — historical rankings, performance-related merit payments, and TV “market pool” for each country.
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All four English sides earn the same £13.6m qualification payment.
But with the Toon looking more likely to finish fourth — Manchester United will go third with a win over Chelsea tomorrow — they will get a smaller cut of the TV pool.
BT’s mega-deal, which continues under the new TNT Sports label, means the English pot of £57.6m is the biggest in Europe.
The first half is paid out according to the Prem positions, with champs City taking 40 per cent — £11.52m — and the fourth-placed team just a tenth, or £2.88m.
Erik ten Hag’s United, if they finish third, will get a fraction MORE than Arsenal — £48.11m — because of that extra coefficient payment.
But even finishing third would only bag Newcastle a total of £24.38m.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
