Spurs’ main goal for the end of this season is to comfortably qualify for the UEFA Champions League, preferably not in 4th to avoid stress during the play-off. Almost every Spurs fan knows this but not every Spurs fan has considered why the CL is vital in more ways than just “because we spent £110 million in the summer”.
The first reason is possibly the one foremost on Daniel Levy’s mind, is that of the financial gain. When a club qualifies for the CL play-off they will receive £1.6 million pounds and then if they then enter the group stages they receive a further £4.2 million. To top the group stage off each club receives a subsequent €550,000 per game guaranteeing an extra £3.3 million on top of the other 2 payments. This totals £9.1 million pounds just for turning up to the matches! And this still doesn’t include TV endorsements. There is no set amount to receive from TV money but to put things in perspective in the 2010/2011 season Rangers received £8 million and although drawing a club like Bayern or Barca isn’t going to help chances of progressing it will increase overall TV earnings. The final way of income a club could receive from the CL is the performance bonus. This is given to the club depending on a result. The prices are £788,000 for each victory and £394,000 for each draw. So to set out a final scenario if Spurs Win 3 games in the group stage and draw 1 the total funds they could get would be around £12 million and that’s just the group stage.
The second reason on my mind, which is something, we need to improve is our fan base around the rest of Europe and around the world. If Spurs were to reach the final (this is of course in an ideal world) there would be around 350 million people watching some who already supports a team but some who aren’t quite set in their ways and just need a little bit of persuasion in who to support. It could be extremely beneficial for increasing the Spurs’ international fan base.
The third reason on the agenda for why CL is vital is player attraction. Again I am drawn back to the “Summer of Gareth Bale” when Angel Di Maria was seen as a worthy replacement for Gareth but didn’t want to join citing his reasons as “no champions league”. I believe this has been a pressing issue for international standard players wanting to join Spurs even though the media aren’t always reporting on it.
The 4th and final reason that I am writing about, among the many, is morale around the club. I believe if Spurs qualify for the CL there will be an enormous morale boost compared to last year having just missed out in fifth and the year before because Chelsea won. This, I think would be brilliant for Tottenham as the good spirits we would end the season on would carry over to pre-season and the extra happiness and funds around the club could tip Daniel Levy over the edge to re-enter the transfer market in the next summer. But if we don’t quite make it, it will be a horrible note to end the season on after a summer spending spree and who knows, if that’s the case then AVB may well be job-hunting again.
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