Club Brugge vs Union: Playoff Contrast

The league phase of the Champions League 2025-2026 has revealed all its secrets. This also allows the club’s accountants to draw up a (temporary) balance sheet. Club Brugge and Union Saint-Gilloise have already made a lot of money on their European adventure. In the case of Blue-Black that monster amount may even increase, given the qualification. VoetbalPrimeur.be reviews the income for both Belgian participants.

Since the beginning of last season, the Champions League not only has a new competition format, but also an increased prize pool. The total sum has increased by approximately four hundred million euros. The 36 clubs in the group phase may divide no less than 2.437 billion euros. For comparison: 565 million is reserved in the Europa League and 285 million for the Conference League.

Participating is more important than winning. Well, that Olympic idea certainly applies in the Champions League on a financial level. Each participant already receives an amount of 18.62 million euros from UEFA, simply because it reached the league phase. A nice introduction for both Club and Union.

‘Pillar of Value’

However, that is far from the end of the story. In addition to the starting amount, a significant return is reserved, based on the so-called ‘value pillar’. This was created when the new format was announced, to replace the market pool and club coefficient. This has been split by UEFA into a European part (75 percent) and a non-European part (25 percent). The ranking for the European part is determined on the basis of the club coefficient over the past five years and the market value of the club, or the revenue from the TV rights. The non-European part concerns the club ranking over the past ten years.

The exact TV rankings have not been announced at this time. Based on last year, Club Brugge should be around position 25. If we take that number, it would leave eleven teams behind in this group stage. Since one share is worth 960,000 euros, this means a significant extra of 11.52 million euros (namely 12 x 960,000). The clubs also benefit from the non-European part. In this case, a share is worth 320,000 euros. In the case of Club Brugge, that amount must also be increased approximately tenfold. Together, that TV money amounts to approximately 15 million euros for Club.

Hits here Blue-Black also a gap with national champion Union. As a newcomer on the CL scene, we find the people of Brussels a bit lower. Conservative estimates place them somewhere at the bottom of the TV rankings, which means Union should rather count on an amount around five million euros. Still very welcome for a Belgian club!

Performance

Until now, this only concerned insured income. However, it remains a sports competition, and therefore performance is also important. Also for the club greenhouse. A win in the league phase of the Champions League yields a bonus of 2.1 million euros, a draw is good for 700,000 euros. In other words: for every point won, a club earns 700,000 euros.

Club Brugge ended its league phase with ten points, or 7 million euros in performance bonuses. Union is just one unit less: nine points, so 6.3 million. That’s not the end of it yet. UEFA still uses a bonus system for the final ranking. Once again we work with ‘shares’. The last receives 275,000 euros, the penultimate 550,000 euros, and so on.

Thanks to the victory against Olympique Marseille, Club Brugge rose to place 19, Union landed at 27. That amounts to eighteen and ten shares respectively. The bill: Club receives another 4.95 million euros, Union 2.75 million. And the receipts from the home games still have to be added.

Staggering amounts, but for Club Brugge it is not even over yet. UEFA also hands out lucrative gifts after the league phase. One million euros can be earned for participating in the intermediate round, an amount that the West Flemish people can already contribute. For a place in the eighth finals, no less than eleven million will be added. So the stakes are known…

In episode 26 of the second season of Tijd voor Voetbal, the many supporters’ protests in the JPL are discussed, the possible dismissal of Besnik Hasi from RSC Anderlecht and the goal festival in Club Brugge – Zulte Waregem. That and much more in Time for Football.