Who says football is about the trophy? It’s the money!

Football, it is said, is all about winning trophies. But is it really the trophy that drives the determination or the money?

Findings have shown that winners rake in funds in millions from football competitions. Here is a compilation of monetary prizes attached to some football competitions.

World Cup

The 2014 FIFA World Cup, the 20th edition of the FIFA World Cup, which is scheduled to take place in Brazil from June 12 to July 13, 2014,  is worth $576 million, according to FIFA. This represents 37 per cent increase from the worth of the 2010 tournament. This figure includes payments of $70 million to domestic clubs of the players representing their national teams at the tournament. Before the tournament, each of the 32 participating teams will receive $1.5 million for preparation costs.

At the tournament, the prize money will be distributed as follows: $8 million each to 16 teams eliminated at the group stage, $9 million each to eight teams eliminated in the round of 16, $14 million each to four teams eliminated in the quarter-finals, $20 million for the fourth placed team, $22 million for the third placed team, $25 million for the runner-up, and $35 million for the winning team.

UEFA Champions League

Dubbed ‘the greatest show on earth,” the UEFA Champions League is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 1992. It is a replacement of the European Champion Clubs’ Cup, or simply European Cup, which had run since 1955. It is one of the most prestigious tournaments in the world and the most prestigious club competition in European football.

UEFA awards $2.8 million to each team in the play-off round. For reaching the group stage, UEFA awards a base fee $11.7 million per team. A win in the group is awarded $1.36 million and a draw is worth $682,000. In addition, UEFA pays teams reaching the first knockout round $4.7 million, each quarter-finalist $5.3 million, approximately $6.7 million for each semi-finalist, $8.8 million for the runner-up and $14.3 million for the winner.

A large part of the distributed revenue from the UEFA Champions League is determined by the value of the television market in each country. For example, in the 2012–13 season, Juventus, eliminated in the quarter-finals, earned nearly $89 million in total, of which $27.9 million was prize money, compared with the $75 million earned by Bayern Munich, who won the tournament and were awarded $48.9 million in prize money.

Payouts for participants is expected to increase over the years to come, especially given the BT Group’s successful bid of $1.48 billion to secure television broadcast rights.

English Premier League

The English Premier League is the country’s primary football competition for men. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Football League. It is the most-watched football league in the world, broadcast in 212 territories to 643 million homes to a potential TV audience of 4.7 billion people.

The Premier League has confirmed its merit money payments of $2.02 million for every place each club finishes on the table, rising up to US$40.4 million for the champions.

Aside merit payments, current champions, Manchester City, earned $160 million from TV broadcasts from a huge value of the $9.2 trillion shared among clubs. Cardiff City, at the bottom of the table, earned $106 million from the TV pool.

A facility fee of $1.2 million is paid to a club for every live TV appearance, with a minimum payment of US$12.6 million per club.

Manchester United, winners of the 2012/13 season, pocketed approximately US$100 million for their accomplishment, with US$1.6 billion shared for the 1,063 total goals scored that season. That is an average of US$1.5 million per goal!

English FA Cup

The English FA Cup is the main domestic cup competition in English football, and the oldest football knock-out competition in the world. The 2013–14 season was the 133rd season of the competition. A club that wins the FA cup can collect approximately $5.6 million in prize money and around $1.1 million in television money.

Capital One Club

The Capitol One League Cup is considered to be a lesser competition than the FA Cup. This is evident in the prize payout, which, in comparison with other competitions, is a meagre $165,000.

The drop in money and television coverage for these competitions explains why top-tier clubs are often reluctant to play their best players in them. However, more than the prize money involved, because both the FA Cup and League Cup provide automatic qualification for the Europa League.

Europa League

And although the Europa league is not as prestigious or lucrative as the Champions League, 2012/13 Europa League winners, Chelsea, earned $14.6 million in prize and television money, while Bayern Munich earned US$75 million from the Champions League.