When Uefa (European Football Association) created a group stage in the Champions League also on the women’s side, it was described as the millions started to rain on the clubs. That is not the case – the roughly 5.7 million kroner that Häcken and Rosengård receive for having reached there is not enough.
— It is clear that they had hoped that there could be a financial injection to the association when they are still top 16 in Europe. But that’s not the case today, says Rosengård’s club manager Jenny Damgaard.
Hope to go up evenly
In an ideal world, Damgaard expects a plus-minus-zero deal.
“There is a lot of travel, overnight stays, large troops, security duties, renovations that need to be done at the arena and the like,” she says.
“One had hoped that there could be a financial injection to the association when you are still in the top 16 in Europe. But that is not the case today,” says Rosengård’s club manager Jenny Damgaard about the income the association receives via the Champions League. Archive image.
Häcken’s club manager Marcus Jodin is more optimistic.
— We managed to go with a little profit in the group stage in 2021, then there was one to two million left over. I assume that we can reach that even now, says Jodin.
Rosengård lost their opener last week against Eintracht Frankfurt. Häcken won away against Paris FC and thus collects around SEK 580,000 in prize money.
— You have to bear in mind that there is no huge money for victories in the group. But overall, you can count on 6–7 million in revenue from a group game. And we don’t see the need for such large overheads, says Marcus Jodin.
Hardly any crumbs
But the women’s clubs’ start-up money and prizes during the tournament are not even crumbs compared to what an association receives in the men’s edition of the Champions league.
The ladies’ prize pool is there at 275 million, converted into kroner.
The men’s pot is almost 23 billion.
This means that 98.8 percent of the pot for the Champions league goes to the men. What remains is 1.2 percent of the pot for the ladies.
Huge difference
The difference is also gigantic compared to the Europa League, where Häcken’s men play this autumn.
“Simply put, I would say that the ladies can reach about ten percent of what we manage to play together with the men,” says Marcus Jodin.
— On the men’s side, I think we can count on approximately SEK 100 million in gross revenue, but there are certain parts that are not ready.
Uefa has already promised more money on the women’s side going forward. However, Rosengård’s national team star Caroline Seger is also hoping for traction from the new so-called “double clubs”, i.e. traditional men’s clubs that now also invest heavily in the women’s side.
Must press
In addition to the big English teams, the list includes, for example, Barcelona, one of the other teams in Rosengård’s group, and Häcken’s opponent this week, Real Madrid.
— It is clear that things are getting better and that the opportunities and conditions are increasing, but the big clubs are withdrawing. Because they have a completely different economy behind them, says Caroline Seger.
— So it is also their responsibility to push, so that it does not become our task – we small clubs that are barely heard out there.
Must be raised
Malmö FF has extensive experience in both the Champions League and Europa League on the men’s side. Now the women’s team has also come a long way on its journey in the series system (playing in the elite top next year) and MFF CEO Niclas Carlnén believes that more money must be added to the women’s tournament in the future for it to be sustainable in the long term.
— The years the association plays in Europe, each individual player plays so much more. So you need to have a wider squad to handle two competitions. This means that the compensation from Uefa must be such that you can actually build such a squad, says Carlnén, who before coming to MFF in the spring of 2014 was club manager in Rosengård.
Not justified
The current distribution of money and arrangement of the tournament also applies next season, but negotiations for the next cycle are ongoing. Marcus Jodin expects that the income in the women’s Champions League percentage wise will increase drastically in the next few years.
“I wouldn’t say that the differences that exist now are market-related,” he says.
— Women’s football in Europe really washes out in terms of branding, so it is a natural effect that it is approaching men’s football in that the interest is growing so avalanche-like.
“We managed to go with a little profit in the group stage in 2021, then there was one to two million left,” says Häcken’s club manager Marcus Jodin about last year’s adventure in the Champions League. Archive image.