Even if Olympique de Marseille managed to win their ticket to the group stage of the Champions League this summer, the C1 will not fill the coffers as much as if the Ciel et Blancs had finished in second place.
Olympique de Marseille finally cracked in the home stretch. Pressured by euphoric Lensois for several weeks, Igor Tudor’s men let go in the final runaway, chaining three defeats in four matches. After having occupied the runner-up chair for a long time behind PSG, OM will therefore have to settle for third place. With the corollary of the obligation to go through the third preliminary round and the play-offs to win his ticket for the group stage of the Champions League.
The Olympians will therefore be on deck from the first weeks of August and must not miss each other if they want to make the music of the Champions League resound at the Vélodrome and fill the club’s coffers. Whatever happens, this third place is nevertheless bad news from a financial point of view. Consequence of the distribution of commercial revenue from the “market pool” (rights paid by television).
If there are three clubs qualified in the group stage, the champion of France indeed receives 45% of the amount, the second 35% and the third only 20%, the said receipts amounting to some 60 million euros. While PSG should therefore be paid around 27 million euros, OM will have to settle for a dozen million euros if necessary when second place will bring in 21 million.
The loss of this second place therefore constitutes a shortfall of nine million euros just for the TV rights of the Champions League. And the shortfall will be even greater if OM stalls during the elimination rounds.
