Talkin' Money. Champions League Money.

Money. What's the difference between the Champions League and the Europa League? What a team earns in both is a combination of a participation bonus, bonuses for progressing to and through the knockout rounds, and a share of the market pool based on TV share.

Europa League: In 2010-11, Villarreal earned 1 mil Euros for being in the Europa League. They won four matches in their group stage, adding another 560,000; they received 1.6 million for progressing along to the semifinal. The total is 3.16 million Euros. The market pool is probably that much again (Villarreal benefits here because the other Spanish teams in the EL went out so early). So a semifinal run in this competition brought us ~6 million.

Of course, Villarreal could end up in the Europa League in 2011-12 in two different ways--either by losing their playoff qualifier (they receive 2.1MM for participating in it) or they could go through the CL group stage, finish third, and then go into the EL knockout stages. With the money from playing in the play-off round, even if Villarreal were to lose and go directly into the EL, they could probably earn 5-6MM anyway, with a decent run.

Champions League: you get 7.2 million guaranteed from making the CL. Let's say Villarreal wins 2 matches and draws 1 in the group stage. That's 2 million. The market pool (judging from Atletico Madrid's the year they went out at the group stage) should be around 5 million or more. So even a mediocre run in the CL brings ~14-15 million, and getting out of the group stage gets you 3 million plus more market pool as you play in the round of 16.

So at least for Villarreal (the number is bigger for English clubs) winning this match is probably a 10MM Euro kick to the bottom line over the EL, plus of course the added prestige.

Sr. Roig seems to be indicating he's willing to spend some money on the squad this summer in order to add some experience off the bench and perhaps reduce our reliance on Nilmar and Giuseppe Rossi as goalscorers. Even assuming we keep all our main players, do we lay out for someone like Gameiro?

If Sr. Roig thinks he helps us win the qualifier and get to the CL group stage, I say yes. His transfer fee--10 to 12 million Euros, probably--is no bigger than the difference in CL vs Europa payouts. Thoughts??