Analysis
Take Manchester City out of the table, and £1.92 billion moves to the rest of English football
What if Manchester City had never been in the table? Take them out of every Premier League season from 2009/10 to 2025/26 and every club below them moves up a place: more prize money and, for some, a place in Europe. Added up across 41 clubs, with the money carried forward to today, it comes to £1.92 billion. It is a what-if count, not a claim for damages.
Latest note, 25 October 2026 (second): data correction, no figure changed. All 4 correction notes are at the end.
12 October 2026.
Building on Paul Quinn’s merit-money work: every club, every European place, seventeen seasons.
On 29 September 2026 the Premier League announced that an independent commission had found Manchester City in breach of the League’s financial rules across nine seasons, 2009/10 to 2017/18. City have appealed, and sanctions have not yet been decided.
The breaches concern City’s accounts. But the League is a closed competition with a fixed pot of prize money and a fixed number of European places. Every place City took was a place another club did not have. So we asked one question:
If City’s row is taken out of every final table, how much money moves to the other clubs?
The answer, with every amount carried forward to 30 June 2026 at 5% a year:
| League prize money | European places | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009/10–2017/18 (the nine seasons of the finding) | £325.3m | £507.5m | £832.8m |
| 2018/19–2025/26 (if the advantage carried on), European seasons UEFA has reported on | £419.6m | £504.1m | £923.6m |
| All seventeen seasons, on UEFA’s figures | £744.9m | £1,011.6m | £1,756.5m |
| European places for 2025/26, not yet reported on by UEFA (estimate) | £83.0m | £83.0m | |
| European places for 2026/27, season in progress (estimate) | £81.8m | £81.8m | |
| All seventeen seasons, with the two estimated | £744.9m | £1,176.3m | £1,921.3m |
£1.92 billion, spread across 41 clubs. Of that, £1,756.5m is on UEFA’s own figures for every European season it has reported on, each European place valued at what UEFA paid the club that actually held it, and £164.8m is for two later European seasons that are still estimates: the places won in the league seasons 2024/25 and 2025/26 are played in 2025/26, which UEFA has not yet reported on, and in 2026/27, which is still being played. With no rate applied the total is £1,441.3m (£1,276.5m on UEFA’s figures alone).
Counting, for all seventeen seasons, only UEFA’s fixed participation fee for each European place and nothing a club earned beyond it, the figure is £993.8m at 5% a year, or £732.5m with no rate applied. That is a count on fees alone, not a lower limit: if the places that began in a qualifying round are counted as worth nothing, it is £975.0m.
Three things this figure is not:
- It is not damages. It does not say what any club lost, and no club is owed it. It shows what the published tables and the published payment rules give if one club is removed.
- It is not a replay of history. We delete City’s row and move every club below it up one place. No match is replayed, and nothing that might have followed (other transfers, other managers, other results) is modelled.
- It does not assume the outcome of the appeal. The commission’s finding is under appeal, and only 2009/10 to 2017/18 are covered by it. The seasons 2018/19 to 2025/26 are an assumption, kept separate throughout.
What a real claim looks like. In June 2026 a Premier League panel awarded Burnley compensation against Everton for a breach of the profitability rules (PLJP 2023/3, decision of 2 June 2026; Everton is appealing). The panel asked not whether Everton’s overspend contributed to Everton staying up but whether it caused it (paragraph 79). It had one season, one overspend of a fixed £19.5 million and two clubs four league points apart, and it still called the exercise “an inexact science” with “very fine margins” (paragraphs 144 and 167). The loss was then built from Burnley’s own cash flows over four years and came to £26.0 million before interest (paragraph 375), about half of what Burnley claimed (paragraph 8). This article does none of that. It removes one row from seventeen tables and follows the published payments.
1. Paul Quinn got there first; we go further
Paul Quinn at The Esk was the first to put a number on City’s merit payments. In his paper of 30 September 2026 he counts, season by season, the clubs that finished below City and the League’s payment per place: £163.4 million for 2011/12 to 2017/18, and roughly £187 million with the two earlier seasons. Our own build, made independently from public-domain results, gives the same clubs, the same payment per place and the same £163.4 million in each of those seven seasons. Over nine seasons we reach £188.3 million at the time against his roughly £187 million; the difference, under £1 million, is the two earliest seasons, where he assumed about £0.75 million a place and we use the figures reported at the time (£800,424 and £756,756). Two separate counts agreeing to the pound is good evidence the arithmetic is right, and the credit for asking the question first is his.
Two other published estimates cover later seasons as well, and ours is within 5% of both:
| Estimate | Seasons | Their figure | Ours | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OLBG, reported by FootballTransfers (28 September 2026) | 2011/12 to 2025/26 | £527.9m | £520.3m | -1.4% |
| Liverpool Echo (May 2024, as carried by Yahoo Sport) | 2011/12 to 2022/23 | £355.9m | £372.6m | +4.7% |
Merit payments only, in pounds at the time, no interest. OLBG’s club-by-club figures match ours to the pound through 2017/18. The gaps are all in the seasons after, where the payment per place is taken from press reports or estimated: its figures imply a higher payment than ours for 2025/26, which both sides estimate, and a lower one for 2020/21 and 2021/22.
We take it three steps further:
- Europe. League position decides who plays in the Champions League and Europa League, and that money is far larger than merit payments.
- Time. Money paid in 2010 was worth more than the same pounds today, so we carry every season forward.
- 2018/19 to 2025/26. City kept winning after 2018, with a squad built during the nine seasons. We show what the same method gives if the advantage carried on.
2. How the League’s prize money works
Premier League central money is split three ways:
- Most of it is shared equally between the twenty clubs.
- Facility fees depend on how often a club is shown live on television.
- The merit payment depends only on where a club finishes.
The merit payment rises by the same step for every place. The club finishing 20th receives one step, 19th two steps, and so on up to the champions, who receive twenty. So each place in the final table is worth exactly one step: £800,424 in 2009/10, about £1.9 million by 2017/18, and close to £3 million in recent seasons.
Remove City from a season’s table, and every club that finished below City moves up one place and gains one step. City finished in the top four in almost every season, so almost the whole league moves up.
Why 5% a year? Money received in 2010 could have paid wages, cleared debt or earned a return for sixteen years. We carry each season’s prize money from the end of that season, and each European place from the end of the European season it was played in, to 30 June 2026 at 5% a year, compounded. That rate is our assumption, for illustration, not a statutory rate or one a court has set.
The same count at other rates, compounded once a year:
| Rate | League prize money | European places, seasons UEFA has reported on | Total, on UEFA’s figures | With the two estimated seasons |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0% (no rate) | £545.2m | £731.3m | £1,276.5m | £1,441.3m |
| 3% | £654.9m | £886.7m | £1,541.6m | £1,706.3m |
| 5% (used in this article) | £744.9m | £1,011.6m | £1,756.5m | £1,921.3m |
| 8% | £912.4m | £1,238.7m | £2,151.1m | £2,315.9m |
| 10% | £1,051.0m | £1,422.3m | £2,473.3m | £2,638.0m |
| 11.81% | £1,199.2m | £1,615.2m | £2,814.4m | £2,979.2m |
The first row is the money at the time, with nothing added. The last two rows are illustrations only. 11.81% is the highest rate the panel applied in the Burnley v Everton decision, where it used Burnley’s own cost of borrowing in the years 2022 to 2025 (7.60% rising to 11.81%); that decision gives no rate for earlier years, and nothing here suggests it applies to these seasons. The two unreported European seasons are not carried at any rate.
3. Every club
41 clubs played in the Premier League alongside City over the seventeen seasons. Every one of them finishes at least one place higher in at least one season.
| # | Club | 2009/10–2017/18 | 2018/19–2025/26 | Total, 2009/10–2025/26 | Biggest single season |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Tottenham Hotspur |
£150.8m | £98.6m | £249.4m | 2010/11: Champions League place (£45.7m) |
| 2 |  Leicester City |
£8.0m | £233.0m | £241.0m | 2019/20: Champions League place (£119.8m) |
| 3 |  Arsenal |
£71.7m | £121.1m | £192.8m | 2016/17: Champions League place (£60.0m) |
| 4 |  Everton |
£83.9m | £49.1m | £133.0m | 2013/14: Champions League place (£37.1m) |
| 5 |  Chelsea |
£90.3m | £39.9m | £130.2m | 2017/18: Champions League place (£83.1m) |
| 6 |  Aston Villa |
£24.0m | £87.5m | £111.5m | 2024/25: Champions League place (£65.5m) |
| 7 |  Southampton |
£78.3m | £16.9m | £95.2m | 2014/15: one league place (£48.3m) |
| 8 |  Bournemouth |
£7.9m | £78.9m | £86.8m | 2025/26: Champions League place (£64.4m) |
| 9 |  Burnley |
£58.1m | £16.2m | £74.3m | 2017/18: one league place (£51.2m) |
| 10 |  West Ham United |
£37.3m | £33.3m | £70.5m | 2015/16: one league place (£22.3m) |
| 11 |  Newcastle United |
£13.7m | £41.9m | £55.6m | 2023/24: Conference League place (£22.3m) |
| 12 |  Manchester United |
£29.2m | £22.6m | £51.9m | 2013/14: Europa League place (£10.1m) |
| 13 |  Brighton & Hove Albion |
£2.9m | £48.3m | £51.1m | 2024/25: Europa League place (£23.2m) |
| 14 |  Wolverhampton Wanderers |
£4.8m | £45.1m | £49.9m | 2019/20: Europa League place (£24.7m) |
| 15 |  Liverpool |
£23.9m | £24.7m | £48.7m | 2022/23: Champions League place (£10.8m) |
| 16 |  Crystal Palace |
£12.2m | £22.6m | £34.9m | 2022/23: one league place (£3.6m) |
| 17 |  Brentford |
– | £29.6m | £29.6m | 2025/26: Conference League place (£17.4m) |
| 18 |  Fulham |
£8.5m | £17.7m | £26.2m | 2022/23: one league place (£3.6m) |
| 19 |  West Bromwich Albion |
£16.7m | £2.8m | £19.5m | 2016/17: one league place (£3.0m) |
| 20 |  Stoke City |
£18.5m | – | £18.5m | 2016/17: one league place (£3.0m) |
| 21 |  Sunderland |
£15.6m | £2.7m | £18.3m | 2016/17: one league place (£3.0m) |
| 22 |  Watford |
£7.9m | £7.6m | £15.5m | 2016/17: one league place (£3.0m) |
| 23 |  Swansea City |
£15.2m | – | £15.2m | 2016/17: one league place (£3.0m) |
| 24 |  Nottingham Forest |
– | £12.2m | £12.2m | 2022/23: one league place (£3.6m) |
| 25 |  Norwich City |
£7.2m | £5.0m | £12.1m | 2021/22: one league place (£2.7m) |
| 26 |  Leeds United |
– | £11.8m | £11.8m | 2022/23: one league place (£3.6m) |
| 27 |  Hull City |
£9.1m | – | £9.1m | 2016/17: one league place (£3.0m) |
| 28 |  Sheffield United |
– | £8.2m | £8.2m | 2023/24: one league place (£3.1m) |
| 29 |  Wigan Athletic |
£6.2m | – | £6.2m | 2009/10: one league place (£1.7m) |
| 30 |  Huddersfield Town |
£2.9m | £2.7m | £5.5m | 2017/18: one league place (£2.9m) |
| 31 |  Queens Park Rangers |
£5.0m | – | £5.0m | 2014/15: one league place (£2.1m) |
| 32 |  Cardiff City |
£2.2m | £2.7m | £4.9m | 2018/19: one league place (£2.7m) |
| 33 |  Blackburn Rovers |
£4.8m | – | £4.8m | 2009/10: one league place (£1.7m) |
| 34 |  Bolton Wanderers |
£4.8m | – | £4.8m | 2009/10: one league place (£1.7m) |
| 35 |  Birmingham City |
£3.3m | – | £3.3m | 2009/10: one league place (£1.7m) |
| 36 |  Luton Town |
– | £3.1m | £3.1m | 2023/24: one league place (£3.1m) |
| 37 |  Middlesbrough |
£3.0m | – | £3.0m | 2016/17: one league place (£3.0m) |
| 38 |  Ipswich Town |
– | £2.8m | £2.8m | 2024/25: one league place (£2.8m) |
| 39 |  Portsmouth |
£1.7m | – | £1.7m | 2009/10: one league place (£1.7m) |
| 40 |  Blackpool |
£1.6m | – | £1.6m | 2010/11: one league place (£1.6m) |
| 41 |  Reading |
£1.4m | – | £1.4m | 2012/13: one league place (£1.4m) |
| All 41 clubs | £832.8m | £1,088.4m | £1,921.3m |
All amounts carried to 30 June 2026 at 5% a year, compounded. Each total is League prize money plus European places. This table includes the £164.8m for the two estimated European seasons (Aston Villa £62.7m, Bournemouth £61.7m, Brighton & Hove Albion £25.6m, Brentford £14.7m); without it the 41 clubs come to £1,756.5m.
Two patterns stand out:
- The big amounts are European. Tottenham, Arsenal, Leicester, Chelsea and Everton each gain a Champions League place in at least one season, and one such place outweighs years of merit payments.
- The merit money is spread wide. Clubs that spent many seasons below City, such as Stoke, Sunderland, West Brom and Swansea, gain a step almost every year without any European money.
4. Europe: where the money is
When City’s row comes out, one European place is freed at the top and every club below moves up one berth. We set out each season’s berths from UEFA’s own lists of participants and handed them down the table.
Every gain is net, and only a change of competition counts. A club that moves into a competition it was not in, or into a different one, is credited with what UEFA paid the club that actually held the place it moves into, less what UEFA paid it for the place it leaves. The place it leaves goes to the next club down. A club that stays in the same competition keeps its own results: finishing a place higher does not change what a club earns in Europe. The exception is a club whose own place ended in a qualifying round: moving up into a place that went straight to the group stage, it is credited with what UEFA paid that place’s holder. After the league season 2021/22, for example, Arsenal move from the Europa League into the Champions League, West Ham from the Conference League into the Europa League, and Leicester into the Conference League from nothing (places in the 2022/23 competitions).
Did the replacement club get through qualifying? Many of these places start in the qualifying rounds. We use what actually happened: every place was a real slot that a real English club took up. If that club went out before UEFA’s tables list it, the place is worth nothing.
What is a place worth? What UEFA paid the club that actually held it, in that competition and season: one total per club and season, as UEFA’s financial report prints it. The replacement club is assumed to fare as that club did. For 2025/26 and 2026/27, which UEFA has not reported on, the value is an estimate: UEFA’s announced fee times the ratio of English clubs’ earnings to the fee seen in 2017/18.
| Club | European places, 2009/10–2017/18 | European places, 2018/19–2025/26 | Total, 2009/10–2025/26 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leicester City |
– | £216.1m | £216.1m |
| Tottenham Hotspur |
£139.1m | £75.9m | £215.1m |
| Arsenal |
£57.0m | £104.0m | £161.0m |
| Chelsea |
£80.3m | £17.2m | £97.5m |
| Everton |
£65.4m | £26.4m | £91.9m |
| Aston Villa |
£11.4m | £67.5m | £78.9m |
| Southampton |
£64.6m | – | £64.6m |
| Bournemouth |
– | £61.7m | £61.7m |
| Burnley |
£48.4m | – | £48.4m |
| West Ham United |
£20.3m | £10.6m | £30.9m |
| Brighton & Hove Albion |
– | £25.6m | £25.6m |
| Wolverhampton Wanderers |
– | £22.4m | £22.4m |
| Newcastle United |
– | £19.3m | £19.3m |
| Manchester United |
£15.5m | – | £15.5m |
| Brentford |
– | £14.7m | £14.7m |
| Liverpool |
£5.5m | £7.2m | £12.7m |
| All clubs | £507.5m | £668.8m | £1,176.3m |
| of which the two estimated European seasons (2025/26 and 2026/27) | £164.8m | £164.8m |
The UEFA figures used. For each season, the clubs whose places move and what UEFA paid each, from UEFA’s financial report for that season. One total per club and season; UEFA’s tables are not reproduced.
| European season | Club | Competition | UEFA’s total to the club | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010/11 | Liverpool | Europa League | €6.418m | UEFA financial report 2010/11, page 27 |
| 2010/11 | Manchester City | Europa League | €6.418m | UEFA financial report 2010/11, page 26 |
| 2011/12 | Arsenal | Champions League | €29.639m | UEFA financial report 2011/12, page 33 |
| 2011/12 | Tottenham Hotspur | Europa League | €3.259m | UEFA financial report 2011/12, page 36 |
| 2012/13 | Arsenal | Champions League | €32.290m | UEFA financial report 2012/13, page 25 |
| 2012/13 | Newcastle United | Europa League | €6.011m | UEFA financial report 2012/13, page 28 |
| 2012/13 | Tottenham Hotspur | Europa League | €6.111m | UEFA financial report 2012/13, page 29 |
| 2013/14 | Arsenal | Champions League | €28.668m | UEFA financial report 2013/14, page 25 |
| 2013/14 | Tottenham Hotspur | Europa League | €6.514m | UEFA financial report 2013/14, page 29 |
| 2014/15 | Arsenal | Champions League | €34.281m | UEFA financial report 2014/15, page 25 |
| 2014/15 | Everton | Europa League | €7.540m | UEFA financial report 2014/15, page 29 |
| 2014/15 | Tottenham Hotspur | Europa League | €6.064m | UEFA financial report 2014/15, page 28 |
| 2015/16 | Manchester United | Champions League | €38.130m | UEFA financial report 2015/16, page 42 to 49 |
| 2015/16 | Liverpool | Europa League | €37.845m | UEFA financial report 2015/16, page 42 to 49 |
| 2015/16 | Tottenham Hotspur | Europa League | €20.855m | UEFA financial report 2015/16, page 42 to 49 |
| 2016/17 | Manchester City | Champions League | €50.204m | UEFA financial report 2016/17, page 34 |
| 2016/17 | Manchester United | Europa League | €44.503m | UEFA financial report 2016/17, page 38 |
| 2016/17 | Southampton | Europa League | €15.200m | UEFA financial report 2016/17, page 40 |
| 2017/18 | Liverpool | Champions League | €81.283m | UEFA financial report 2017/18, page 34 |
| 2017/18 | Arsenal | Europa League | €37.780m | UEFA financial report 2017/18, page 38 |
| 2017/18 | Everton | Europa League | €14.117m | UEFA financial report 2017/18, page 38 |
| 2018/19 | Liverpool | Champions League | €111.099m | UEFA financial report 2018/19, page 34 |
| 2018/19 | Arsenal | Europa League | €38.995m | UEFA financial report 2018/19, page 38 |
| 2018/19 | Chelsea | Europa League | €46.379m | UEFA financial report 2018/19, page 40 |
| 2019/20 | Tottenham Hotspur | Champions League | €63.700m | UEFA financial report 2019/20, page 34 |
| 2019/20 | Arsenal | Europa League | €18.404m | UEFA financial report 2019/20, page 38 |
| 2019/20 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | Europa League | €22.463m | UEFA financial report 2019/20, page 38 |
| 2020/21 | Chelsea | Champions League | €119.779m | UEFA financial report 2020/21, page 42 |
| 2020/21 | Leicester City | Europa League | €15.896m | UEFA financial report 2020/21, page 46 |
| 2020/21 | Tottenham Hotspur | Europa League | €19.818m | UEFA financial report 2020/21, page 46 |
| 2021/22 | Chelsea | Champions League | €91.880m | UEFA financial report 2021/22, page 30 |
| 2021/22 | Tottenham Hotspur | Conference League | €9.536m | UEFA financial report 2021/22, page 38 |
| 2021/22 | Leicester City | Europa League | €17.762m | UEFA financial report 2021/22, page 34 |
| 2021/22 | West Ham United | Europa League | €32.093m | UEFA financial report 2021/22, page 34 |
| 2022/23 | Tottenham Hotspur | Champions League | €65.674m | UEFA financial report 2022/23, page 34 |
| 2022/23 | West Ham United | Conference League | €22.109m | UEFA financial report 2022/23, page 42 |
| 2022/23 | Arsenal | Europa League | €25.036m | UEFA financial report 2022/23, page 38 |
| 2022/23 | Manchester United | Europa League | €32.648m | UEFA financial report 2022/23, page 38 |
| 2023/24 | Newcastle United | Champions League | €34.409m | UEFA financial report 2023/24, page 36 |
| 2023/24 | Aston Villa | Conference League | €16.185m | UEFA financial report 2023/24, page 44 |
| 2023/24 | Brighton & Hove Albion | Europa League | €21.298m | UEFA financial report 2023/24, page 40 |
| 2023/24 | Liverpool | Europa League | €26.803m | UEFA financial report 2023/24, page 40 |
| 2024/25 | Aston Villa | Champions League | €83.685m | UEFA financial report 2024/25, page 32 |
| 2024/25 | Chelsea | Conference League | €21.822m | UEFA financial report 2024/25, page 36 |
| 2024/25 | Tottenham Hotspur | Europa League | €41.357m | UEFA financial report 2024/25, page 34 |
How firm is this? For every European season UEFA has reported on, the value of each place is UEFA’s own figure for the club that held it. What is assumed is that the replacement club would have done as that club did; it is not a prediction of what any club would have done. The two latest European seasons are estimates. That is why the fees-only figure, £993.8m at 5% a year and £732.5m with no rate, sits beside the headline.
5. 2018/19 to 2025/26
The commission’s finding stops at 2017/18. City did not stop: five more titles followed in the next six seasons, with a squad and a club built during the nine seasons. Whether the advantage carried on is an argument, not a finding, and the table keeps those seasons in their own column.
For those seasons the step per place is mostly published. Where it is not, we estimate it:
| Season | Step per place | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| 2018/19 | £1.9m | reported |
| 2019/20 | £1.7m | estimated: £2.2m for the cycle, less a Covid rebate of about £0.5m a place |
| 2020/21 | £2.2m | estimated: same cycle (the Covid rebates did not follow league position) |
| 2021/22 | £2.2m | reported |
| 2022/23 | £3.1m | reported |
| 2023/24 | £2.8m | reported |
| 2024/25 | £2.7m | reported |
| 2025/26 | £2.7m | estimated: last season’s step carried over |
The step per place rose after 2018, from about £1.9m in 2017/18 to as much as £3.1m. That is why the eight seasons from 2018/19 come to more than the nine of the finding: £923.6m against £832.8m, before the £164.8m for the two estimated European seasons.
6. How we built it
- Tables: every Premier League match from 2009/10, from openfootball’s public-domain results, with the points deductions on record.
- The step per place: reported each season by Sporting Intelligence (Nick Harris) for 2009/10 to 2017/18, and by Planet Football and Football365 for the seasons after. We do not reproduce the League’s payment tables.
- European places: UEFA’s published lists of participants and access lists, with group stage and qualifying rounds kept apart. Each season’s places are handed down the table in order, and every club’s gain is net of the place it left.
- European values: for every European season UEFA has reported on (2010/11 to 2024/25), UEFA’s total distribution to the club that held each place, from its financial report for that season (listed in section 4). For 2025/26 and 2026/27, UEFA’s announced participation fee times the 2017/18 ratio of English clubs’ earnings to the fee: an estimate. UEFA’s participation fees alone give the fees-only count. Euros converted at the European Central Bank’s average rate for each season. European places played in 2026/27 are not compounded, as that season is still running.
- Time value: 5% a year, compounded, to 30 June 2026.
- Not included: relegation and parachute payments, and any knock-on effect (sponsorship, wages, players).
Sources and what is estimate
- Paul Quinn, The Esk: Premier League v Manchester City: potential civil claimants, 30 September 2026. The merit count this article builds on. His proposal and his figures are his; any error here is ours.
- OLBG’s study: as reported by FootballTransfers, 28 September 2026.
- Liverpool Echo: May 2024, as carried by Yahoo Sport.
- The Premier League’s statements: 29 September 2026 and 2 October 2026.
- UEFA’s financial reports, 2010/11 to 2024/25: what UEFA paid each English club that held a place that moves, one total per club and season (section 4).
- Fact: the final tables, the clubs that entered each European competition and how far they went, UEFA’s payments to them, UEFA’s announced fees.
- Reported: the payment per place in most seasons.
- Estimate: the payment per place in 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2025/26; the European values for 2025/26 and 2026/27; the 5% rate.
- Assumption: that a replacement club fares as the club that actually held the place, and that nothing else changes.
This is a hypothetical count from public information. It is not a claim that any club is owed anything, and it is not legal or financial advice.
Part 2: the clubs City knocked out
This article counts only English clubs. City also beat European clubs in the Champions League knockout rounds, and went to two Club World Cups as Champions League winners. Part 2 follows that money: Manchester City in Europe: £227.7m for going through, and the clubs on the other side.
Corrections and updates (4)
13 October 2026 · Data correction · several figures: see the note
Correction and update, 13 October 2026. No club’s figure has changed, and the total is still £2,013.5m. Three statements were wrong and are corrected. (1) The article said that for 2018/19 to 2025/26 “no usable published figure exists”. UEFA publishes what it pays each club; we do not reproduce its club figures. (2) It said that for 2009/10 to 2017/18 more than half the European value rests on our estimate. About a quarter does; three-quarters rests on press-reported earnings of English clubs. (3) It called £993.8m a floor. It is a count on UEFA’s participation fees alone, and the lowest case we count is £975.0m. Added: the breakdown of the total (£1,848.7m for the seasons UEFA has reported on, £164.8m for two European seasons it has not), the same count at other rates (£1,500.9m with no rate applied), and a paragraph on the Burnley v Everton compensation decision. We checked the European values against UEFA’s own figures for the fifteen seasons it has reported on. That check did not lead us to change any figure.
14 October 2026 · New evidence · several figures: see the note
14 October 2026. The European values now come from UEFA’s own financial reports: for each place a club gains, what UEFA paid the club that actually held that place, in place of press reports and our estimate; and a club that stays in the same competition keeps its own results, unless its own place ended in a qualifying round. For the seasons UEFA has reported on the total is now £1,756.5m at 5% a year (it was £1,848.7m), and £832.8m for the nine seasons of the finding (it was £924.9m). The two later European seasons stay as estimates: £83.0m for 2025/26, which UEFA has not yet reported on, and £81.8m for 2026/27, still being played; with them the total is £1,921.3m (it was £2,013.5m). Clubs whose totals moved by more than £1m: Tottenham Hotspur £331.2m to £249.4m; Leicester City £173.8m to £241.0m; Arsenal £249.4m to £192.8m; Manchester United £103.3m to £51.9m; Liverpool £92.7m to £48.7m; Southampton £64.9m to £95.2m; Burnley £45.6m to £74.3m; West Ham United £62.2m to £70.5m; Wolverhampton Wanderers £45.4m to £49.9m; Newcastle United £51.6m to £55.6m; Chelsea £133.8m to £130.2m; Aston Villa £108.5m to £111.5m. The fees-only count, £993.8m, is unchanged. Each UEFA figure used is listed in section 4 with its report and page.
25 October 2026 · Data correction · no figure changed
Correction, 25 October 2026. No figure changed. The article said the step per place in the league table roughly doubled after 2018; its own figures give about £1.9m in 2017/18 and £1.9m to £3.1m in the seasons after, a rise of up to about two thirds. The sentence now gives the figures.
25 October 2026 (second) · Data correction · no figure changed
Correction, 25 October 2026 (second). No figure changed. The fees-only count, £993.8m, did not say that it is carried at 5% a year like the headline. No rule sets a rate for a count of this kind: the 5% is our assumption, for illustration, as the section on the rate says. The count is now given both ways, £993.8m at 5% and £732.5m with no rate applied.
Next: part 2Manchester City in Europe: £227.7m for going through, and the clubs on the other side
The Premier League’s statement of 29 September 2026 reported the commission’s finding for the seasons 2009/10 to 2017/18. Manchester City has appealed, as the League confirmed on 2 October 2026. Sanctions have not been determined. Nothing in this article assumes the outcome of the appeal or any sanction.