Rewards
In addition to the €3 million participation bonus, €5.7 million won from the group stages and €7.7 million from the three rounds prior to the final, Manchester United also received €7 million for winning the final and becoming champions. Chelsea also received €3 million for participation and €7.7 million for the first three knockout rounds, but received only €5.1 million from the group stage, having drawn two more games and won two less than Manchester United. Chelsea also received €4 million for becoming the runners-up.
The two clubs benefited greatly from reaching the final. In addition to the €23.4 million and €19.8 million earned respectively by the champions and runners-up as prize money, the clubs received money from the UEFA market pool share. The market pool share is estimated to have a total value of €280 million, shared between the 32 clubs who qualified for the group stage. The pool was split in proportion to each national association's strength in the television market, with the Premier League receiving around €50 million from the pool. The money is then split in a 4:3:2:1 ratio to the four teams who qualified for the Champions League from the 2007–08 Premier League. This means that Manchester United received around €20 million and Chelsea around €15 million. The strong presence of the English clubs in the final stages of the competition – three of the four clubs in the semi-final were English – will undoubtedly increase the league's pool share, with possibly more than €50 million being distributed among the clubs.
In addition, Manchester United qualified for two further competitions:
- A place in the 2008 UEFA Super Cup in August versus UEFA Cup winners, Zenit St. Petersburg, in which €2.8 million was shared between the two teams.
- A place as Europe's representatives in the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup in Japan against clubs from other confederations.
Read more about this topic: 2008 UEFA Champions League Final
Famous quotes containing the word rewards:
“The tendencies of the times favor the idea of self-government, and leave the individual, for all code, to the rewards and penalties of his own constitution, which work with more energy than we believe, whilst we depend on artificial restraints.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“No one ever promised me it would be easy and its not. But I also get many rewards from seeing my children grow, make strong decisions for themselves, and set out on their own as independent, strong, likeable human beings. And I like who I am becoming, too. Having teenagers has made me more human, more flexible, more humble, more questioningand, finally its given me a better sense of humor!”
—Anonymous Father. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Womens Health Book Collective, ch. 4 (1978)
“Few white citizens are acquainted with blacks other than those projected by the media and the socalled educational system, which is nothing more than a system of rewards and punishments based upon ones ability to pledge loyalty oaths to Anglo culture. The media and the educational system are the prime sources of racism in the United States.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)