The strangest Champions League in memory celebrates today the first match of a no less atypical semifinal, with two German and two French teams playing the main football tournament at club level.
Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and RB Leipzig , the German club of energy drink giant Red Bull, are competing for first place in next Sunday's final today. Bayern Munich and Olympique Lyon will do it tomorrow. All these matches, as also happened in the quarterfinals, are played in Lisbon behind closed doors and in a single match.
Conditions that, coincidence or not, have caused that for the first time in 13 years none of the four survivors is one of the three most powerful European clubs in terms of income generation.
Bayern and PSG enjoy huge potential financial who placed fourth and fifth in the last report Football Money League that Deloitte published in January. But none of those who occupy the financial podium have been able to place themselves this year among the four best European clubs on the field.
Barcelona, first in Deloitte's rankings with revenues of almost 841 million, suffered a humiliating 8-2 defeat at the hands of Bayern Munich, the latter with almost 200 million less turnover. Real Madrid was knocked out earlier, in the round of 16 for the second consecutive year, by Manchester City, which was later defeated by Olympique Lyonnais. The third, Manchester United, did not compete in the Champions League but in the Europa League, but even so Sevilla was able to beat him 2-1 on Sunday despite the fact that the English team multiplied their income by five.
Background
You have to travel to the 2006-2007 season to find the last semifinals that were not played by any of the three highest-earning teams in Europe that year. They were disputed by Manchester United, which was then fourth, Milan (5th), Chelsea (6th) and Liverpool (10th). Since then and for 12 consecutive seasons, either Real Madrid, Barcelona or Manchester United managed to get into the penultimate round of the Champions League.
Especially the Spanish, who unlike United have competed every year in the top European competition. In fact, during those 12 seasons the semifinals had always had the presence of Real Madrid or Barcelona, although both have not coincided since 2015.
Still, this year's semifinals have two clear favorites from the financial prism. Bayern have been among the five richest clubs in Europe since 2009, during which time they have reached eight Champions League semi-finals and won one. Together with Madrid and Barcelona it is one of the three elite teams that survive the economic peak of the English Premier or the petródolares. The same ones that have raised PSG to the financial elite of football, being the fifth club with the most income with 636 million, although these are the first semifinals that it disputes.
He triples the income of his rival today, RB Leipzig, a newcomer to professional football and the executioner of Atlético de Madrid in the quarterfinals. His first season in the first German was 2016-2017. That same year he was second and qualified for the Champions League. Red Bull's financial backing and television contracts have made its financial power rise like foam: it closed the 2018-2019 season with revenues of 271 million, although the figure includes player sales [Deloitte does not include transfers in its rankings] .
Bayern also tripled in revenue to Olympique de Lyon, 17th in Deloitte's rankings and 10 years later they return to the semi-finals. The figures suggest an almost certain Bayern-PSG final, but football is not always mathematical.
Sevilla, a final reached financially inferior
Success. Sevilla sealed their qualification for the Europa League final on Sunday after beating a giant like Manchester United 2-1, which multiplies the income of the Spanish club by five. An inequality that also suffered, although to a lesser extent, with Wolverhampton in the quarterfinal. The English club is the 25th in Europe with the highest income, with 195.5 million euros according to Deloitte's Football Money League report, which gives Sevilla a figure of 142.5. The Wolves, as they are known in the football world, are controlled by the Chinese group Fosun. The difference was wider with their rival in the round of 16, Roma, 16th club in the continent in turnover with 231 million.
