Our business model

As a not-for-profit organisation, UEFA's business model is structured to support our goal of ensuring European football continues to thrive at all levels. By keeping our overheads to a minimum, we reinvest the majority of revenue generated by our famous club and national team competitions as equitably and fairly as possible across European football.

For the four-year financial period from 2019/20 to 2022/23, this amounts to more than 97% of our net revenue. More than three-quarters will go to clubs – mainly as prize money, but also through solidarity payments to clubs that fail to qualify for our competitions for investment in youth football.

Over 8% is earmarked specifically for football development activities, covering the costs of running men’s and women’s youth and futsal competitions and the UEFA HatTrick programme, one of the largest development funds in sport, which reinvests men’s EURO revenue into national association projects.

Where the money goes

See how we distribute the vast majority of our net revenue back into the game*

*Given that a men’s EURO only occurs once every four years, UEFA uses cumulative figures over four-year periods (i.e. 2019/20 to 2022/23) to avoid distorting money flows.

Financial distribution models

Our financial distribution models are a mechanism through which UEFA club and national competition revenues, derived from the sale of centralised sponsorship and media rights, and in some cases ticket sales, are reallocated. Net earnings are divided among competing teams in the form of reward payments, and among non-competing teams in the form of solidarity payments.

National team competitions

For our men's and women's national team final tournaments, we distribute prize money among the participating sides to support development of the wider European game.

All associations that take part in qualifiers for the men’s and women’s EUROs are also rewarded. Similarly, participation fees go to all nations competing in the men's and women's Nations Leagues. Performance bonuses are then awarded in proportion to how teams fare on the field. Cumulatively, for the EURO 2020 cycle, these payments amounted to 13% of our net revenue

Since 2004, we have channelled an average of two-thirds of the men’s EURO's net revenue back to national associations through our UEFA HatTrick programme to support football development projects. Payments are made as:

• lump sums for associations to invest according to strategic priorities;
• annual payments to cover association' running costs, governance projects and national team travel expenses, as well as participation in UEFA youth, women's, futsal and amateur competitions;
• annual incentive payments for which associations can apply to implement a range of UEFA development initiatives (e.g. anti-match-fixing, coaching, club licensing, elite youth player development, grassroots and women's football, good governance, refereeing and social responsibility).

From 2019/20-2022/23, we distributed 8% of our net revenue to fund the HatTrick programme as well as other competitions (eg women’s, youth, futsal and UEFA Regions’ Cup) plus a range of football development projects and education, such as coaching, refereeing, women’s football, non-European confederations.

Club competitions

For the EURO 2020 cycle, which covers the financial years 2019/20 to 2022/23, 68% of our net revenue was distributed to clubs who qualified for our men’s club competitions – the Champions League, Europa League, Conference League and Super Cup.

As well as rewarding success on the field through prize money, our financial distribution models for our men's and women's club competitions ensure that the benefits of their success spread beyond the elite level to contribute to the overall growth of the game.

Each season, solidarity payments are made to clubs eliminated in the preliminary stages of our senior competitions, as well as to other top-tier clubs that failed to qualify through their domestic leagues. This funding is earmarked for youth development programmes and/or local community schemes. From 2019/20-2022/23, solidarity payments to men’s clubs amounted to 8% of net revenue.

Since 1999/2000, payments for non-participating men's clubs have risen from €32.9 million to €177.2 million. Since the 1999/2000 season, our solidarity payments for non-participating men's clubs have risen from €32.9 million to €172.2 million. The first-ever UEFA solidarity payments for women's clubs were introduced in 2021/22 as part of our revamp of the Women's Champions League.

Solidarity payments also fund our club benefits programmes, which recognise domestic clubs that release players to contribute to the success of UEFA competitions.