Interesting to take a look at the Champions League final 16, as compared to the Deloitte Football Money League 2026 rich list.
Do you think we can draw any conclusions?
The Champions League last 16 now available to consider.
The new format brought in for the 2024/25 season, taking out the home and away element against only three opponents, instead eight different opponents in ‘one-off’ games, with all results of the 36 clubs coming together for a Swiss League style outcome.
All 36 clubs playing four teams at home, a different four away, then the top eight in the Swiss League automatically progressing after the eight rounds of matches.
Then this midweek, the 16 clubs that finished 9th to 24th seeing their play-off fates decided, with another eight having qualified.
These are the eight seeded teams who automatically qualified for the last 16 draw:
Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Spurs, Barcelona, Chelsea, Sporting Lisbon and Manchester City.
Then these are the eight teams who qualified via this week’s play-offs for the Champions League last 16 draw:
Real Madrid, PSG, Newcastle United, Atletico Madrid, Atalanta, Bayer Leverkusen, Galatasaray, Bodo/Glimt
The 2026 Deloitte Football Money League was published last month (January 2026).
Showing the clubs in world football with the biggest revenues.
Deloitte Football Money League 2026 top twenty covering the 2024/25 season accounts for each club (In brackets are each club’s position in the 2025 Deloitte list and the amount of their total revenues then for the 2023/24 season)
1st (1st) Real Madrid €1161m (€1046m)
2nd (6th) Barcelona €974.8m (€760m)
3rd (5th) Bayern Munich €860.6m (€765m)
4th (3rd) PSG €837.0m (€806m)
5th (8th) Liverpool €836.1m (€715m)
6th (2nd) Man City €829.3m (€838m)
7th (7th) Arsenal €821.7m (€717m)
8th (4th) Man U €793.1m (€771m)
9th (9th) Tottenham €672.6m (€615m)
10th (10th) Chelsea €584.1m (€546m)
11th (14th) Inter Milan €537.5m (€391m)
12th (11th) Borussia Dortmund €531.3m (€514m)
13th (12th) Atletico Madrid €454.5m (€410m)
14th (18th) Aston Villa €450.2m (€310m)
15th (13th) AC Milan €410.4m (€398m)
16th (16th) Juventus €401.7m (€356m)
17th (15th) Newcastle United €398.4m (€372m)
18th (N/A) Stuttgart €296.3m (€165m)
19th (25th) Benfica €283.4m (€224m)
20th (17th) West Ham €276.0m (€322m)
You can draw your own conclusions from the above but for me the biggest stand out?
Nine of the top ten in the Deloitte Football Money League 2026 have been competing in the Champions League this season. Manchester United of course the odd one out.
All nine of those Deloitte top ten clubs are now in the Champions League last 16…
Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Spurs, Barcelona, Chelsea, Manchester City, Real Madrid, PSG
Three other clubs in the last 16 of the Champions League, finished in the top 21 places of the Deloitte Football Money League 2026 – Atletico Madrid 13th in the money league, Newcastle United 17th and Galatasaray 21st.
The other four clubs to make the last 16 of the Champions League this season are Atalanta, Bayer Leverkusen, Bodo/Glimt, Sporting Lisbon. None of these clubs featured in the top 30 of the Deloitte Football Money League 2026.
When UEFA created this new format for last season, the fact that all clubs played more matches in the Swiss League format, eight instead of the six games in the old four team groups, then it could only be of benefit to the clubs that were already the richest and most powerful. Far less chance of jeopardy for them the more games you play.
Whilst there was also the safety net for the likes of Real Madrid and PSG, that they only needed to finish in the top 24 of the Swiss League, to get a two leg play-off tie and still get through to the Champions League last 16.
I think that what this season’s Champions League last 16 strongly suggests, with all nine of those in the Deloitte top ten making it through, is that the new format is massively in favour of the very richest.
However, when you get outside that Deloitte top ten rich list, things become more of a lottery. The financial advantages for those 11th to 20th in the Deloitte richest, don’t have anything like the same impact, in terms of more or less ensuring progress in the Champions League. Of the clubs 11th to 19th in the Deloitte list, six of them were in this season’s Champions League competition and only two (Newcastle United and Atletico Madrid) progressed to the last sixteen of the UCL.