4th place - is it being overhyped financially?

Can you break that down for me how Liverpool got £20M from this season's Champions League?

(By the way £20M covers Liverpool's interest payment for about 8 months of the year).

The TV and connected sponsorship money from Champions League Participation (even just for playing in the group stages) for English clubs is huge, wheras it is peanuts in the Europa (consider what would happen if the SKY TV money was cancelled - every club in the Premier League would be blown away - well Champions league TV money represents 1/3 of this)

edit - i should also add that there is massive differences in prize money between the 2 comps as well

First off yes I agree JD, 4th place isn't all it's hyped up to be, actually, it means very little.

If my memory is correct, after the ban imposed by EUFA after Heysel, we didn't qualify for the CL until the '04/'05 season but we have competed in it every season since. 

It's the owners "banking" on our qualification for financial reason's that it's regarded as being important to us.  In the good old days playing in Europe was for prestige and honour, not money.

From what I understand, in past champions league years, the winners could have got around £67 million, including revenue, prize money, sponsorship etc. (http://www.sportbusiness.com/news/160305/champions-league-winners-could-net-extra-68-million)

Not to mention the credit rating of being in the champions league - we've got a new sponsor next year, the biggest sporting deal in the world, and I don't think they'd be too happy if we didn't get in the champions league.

So, I have to disagree, and say that there is a vast chasm between 5th and 4th place.

For us fans it's more about the prestige of competing in the Champions League than the financial aspects of qualification, really that's not for us to worry about.

Of course, without money you can't build a team to compete in the tournament, but any money coming into the club at the min, will be disappearing into the black hole that is TOM and GEORGE  

Not to mention the credit rating of being in the champions league - we've got a new sponsor next year, the biggest sporting deal in the world, and I don't think they'd be too happy if we didn't get in the champions league.

So, I have to disagree, and say that there is a vast chasm between 5th and 4th place.

Think if a new sponsor gets there panties in a twist at us not finishing fourth they shouldn't be our sponsor.

4th is as nowhere as 8th in my book.

I just think the whole thing is massively hyped. If we finish 4th the impact on our transfer budget will be minimal.  We finished 2nd last year and got no investment.

If some players are basing the decision on whether to stay because we finish in 4th or 5th then are these really the players we want at our club anyway?

Most top players want to play at the top level and that means CL. It's a short enough career for players and they're like anyone else, they want to be as successful as they can be. It's naive to expect world class players to stay at a club that can't offer them the top stage. That's the main reason to be in the CL, not simply money. Same arguement applies when trying to attract guys. Look at City, truckloads of cash but if you can't offer players the top stage, many won't come. If City get 4th, they might have more luck. If I'd been offered 4th place but had to give up the Europa, for me that's a no brainer. Look at the CL draw for fecks sake, Utd vs. Bayern, Barca vs. Arsenal ... that's were the all the fans and players want to be. Most just pay lip-service to the Europa, yeah would be nice to win but won't loose any sleep over going out of it.

one thing, TV REVENUE

The prize itself is not the only thing, the pot is the TV revenue.