The lure of the Champions League extends beyond sporting pride for Inter and AC Milan, as it has also secured a huge boost to their accounts too.
Corriere dello Sport (via MilanNews) speaks about the income that Inter and Milan have guaranteed with their impressive European runs to the semi-finals, which is worth a total of between €125-130m.
Qualification was already worth €15.6m in itself, to which must be added the performance bonuses: €9.3m for both clubs thanks to 3 wins and a draw in the group.
Then there’s the money for qualifying for the next stages: €9.6m for the round of 16, 10.6 for the quarter-finals and €12.5m for the semi-finals.
To that must be added the market pool (€12m for Inter, €14m for Milan), the historic ranking (€15.9m for Inter and €14.7m for Milan) and box office revenues, which makes a total that has now gone well beyond €100m and shows the importance of being a part of the competition next season.
If ACM don’t make the CL next year it should not be considered an excuse by the owners to not invest in the team. This year’s earnings should make up for it. Still if we can at least draw in Turin and win the other 2 matches with a 9 point deduction we would make it by the skin of our teeth.