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
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