As reported by La Gazzetta dello Sport in this morning's print edition, the Champions League qualification is very important for the two Milanese clubs: AC Milan and their cross city foes Inter.
According to the numbers provided by the Italian newspaper, qualifying to the European elite competition (from fourth place in the standings) would immediately bring in an additional 65 million euros from raking, market pool, participation, group stage result bonuses and sponsor bonuses including ticket revenue. In fact, the AC Milan managers saw their club coffers earn 3 million euros in view of the home game against Croatian outfit Dinamo Zagreb, 4.6 million euros from the fixture against Austrian side RB Salzburg and up to 6.8 million euros from the challenge versus Premier League giants Chelsea at the San Siro. Those numbers, add up, therefore, to nearly 15 million euros from the Champions League group stage alone.
The sum of all revenues from the UEFA Europa League competition, on the other hand, is only a total of 20 million euros which is less than a third of what the Champions League can bring in.
