Newcastle United net £20m windfall - but experts predict they could miss out on £10m boost
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Newcastle United latest news: The Champions League could provide the Magpies with a major financial boost.
Newcastle United’s 2-0 win over Athletic Club on Wednesday night was their third of the Champions League league phase and moved them into 6th place in the table. Eddie Howe’s side currently sit amongst some giants of European football in the top-eight of the table and with nine points from four matches, they can start to believe that knockout football may return to St James’ Park.
Newcastle United have already earned at least £20m from their Champions League campaign to date. Their first appearance in the reformatted ‘swiss style’ model grants them access to far more prize money than the 32-team tournament they entered back in 2023.
Every single team that qualifies for the league phase of the Champions League will earn a minimum £16m in prize money. Every win in the league phase tops that tidal up by £1.8m.
That means the Magpies have already netted themselves £20.4m - even with four games of the league phase yet to play. Every draw in the league phase is worth an additional £600,000.
Prize money then increases with every win in the knockout stage with just-shy of an additional £10m for either finishing in the top-eight or winning a play-off round to secure safe passage into the Round of 16. £10.8m is available to quarter final winners with £13m available to semi-final winners.
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A place in the final in Budapest on May 30 will guarantee any club just-shy of £16m with an additional £5.6m given to the winner. That kind of prize money could be transformative for Newcastle United and whilst a spot in the very latter stages is probably out of their reach, they will be hoping their start is enough to push them towards the knockout stages for the first time in club history.
Experts predict Newcastle United Champions League finish
However, the data experts at Opta believe that Newcastle United will just miss out on a top-eight finish and thus will have to compete in an extra play-off round to reach the Round of 16. Their prediction has the Magpies finishing 9th in the table, just behind last season’s semi-finalists Barcelona.
Finishing 9th, according to Opta’s model, would see Howe’s side face-off against German outfit Eintracht Frankfurt in the play-off round.
Last season, Aston Villa finished in the final automatic qualifying spot having taken 16 points from their eight league phase games. Lille finished below them in 9th with 15 points from eight outings.
That will likely be the benchmark for a top-eight finish again this season. 11 points and a goal difference of -4 was enough for Club Brugge to secure 24th place and the final spot in the play-off round last season.
Newcastle would need just two more points to match that total. However, most of the prediction models, including Opta, think that nine points may be all that is needed to secure a place in the top 24 of the competition.
Newcastle United certainly won’t rest on their laurels and know that a strong finish in the table gives them advantages down the line with either favourable draws or home advantage in the second-leg of knockout matches.