Why RC Lens gets more Champions League money than PSV and Feyenoord

While PSV is already before the start of the season certain of €38 million from the Champions‑League‑distributions, RC Lens and Feyenoord are still waiting for their final amounts. At the same time journalist Tom Knipping recalls a quote from Johan Cruyff: he had never seen a bag of money score, but that does not stop football from being a billion‑dollar industry.

The role of the UEFA‑media‑ranking

In the column Coins & Points, VI reporter Tom Knipping discusses the boundary between commerce, finance and sporting performance. He explains that UEFA's media ranking is a crucial factor in determining club distributions. This ranking influences both the starting money and the so‑called ‘value pillar’, a reward based on the market value of clubs.

Sergiño Dest recently provided an example of the performance‑bonus: a few weeks ago he scored against Shakhtar Donetsk and earned the first European performance bonus of the season. In the coming months there are still millions to be earned, but a large part of those amounts has already been predetermined.

The analysis shows that, despite the certainty for PSV, the final distribution remains dependent on the UEFA‑media‑ranking. RC Lens, PSV and Feyenoord are therefore rewarded differently, which raises the question why Lens, according to some calculations, would receive more CL‑money than the Dutch top clubs.