By Brian Sears 30 November 2012 Last weekend, we predicted in these pages why West Brom might enjoy their match at ‘soft touch’ Sunderland, and they duly won 4-2 to continue their Champions League qualification form. A week on and with a midweek hiccup against Swansea behind them, the Baggies face a barometer of their […]

By Sportingintelligence 24 July 2012 Uefa’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules will start to bite at the end of the forthcoming season (2012-13) when clubs in Uefa competitions will need to start meeting the FFP ‘break even’ requirement, namely not losing more money than they earn. Limited losses are allowed in the early years. One of […]

By Sportingintelligence 15 March 2012 Chelsea’s dramatic victory over Napoli in the Champions League on Wednesday night means England remain the only nation never to be without a quarter-finalist in the competition since it became for clubs other than champions, in 1997-98. With both Manchester clubs eliminated in the group stage and both Arsenal and […]

By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 23 November 2011 Manchester City’s 2-1 defeat last night at Napoli means their Champions League destiny is no longer in their own hands. Bayern Munich, the current leaders of Group A, visit the Etihad Stadium a fortnight today but City know even if they beat […]

By Alex Miller at Leaders in Football, London 6 October 2011 Arsenal’s chief executive Ivan Gazidis has claimed the club’s current lowly league position is not a concern and added the Gunners “could afford to miss out on Champions League” next season and continue to compete for the league title. The club has qualified for […]

By Sportingintelligence 12 September 2011 The Champions League 2011-12 group stage commences this week involving players from 68 different countries, with world champions Spain contributing more players – 81 of them – than any other nation. France contributes the next most among the 32 teams in the group stage, with 77 players, followed by Brazil […]

18 August 2011 By Sportingintelligence Uefa’s detailed figures showing the precise amounts of money earned by the 32 clubs involved in the Champions League in 2010-11 are in the table below, and Uefa’s article on these numbers is linked here. Payments are essentially split in performance money (dependent on results and progress) and TV cash […]

By Nick Harris 6 September 2010 Premier League clubs made by far the most money from Uefa’s central funds from the 2009-10 Champions League according to an analysis by sportingintelligence of recently released financial figures ahead of the 2010-11 group stage starting next week. Despite getting no further than the quarter-finals, Manchester United made €45.8m […]

By Pete Wilson 26 August 2010 The Champions League draw for the group stage has taken place in Switzerland, and not for first time Manchester United find themselves in a ‘Battle of Britain’ group with Rangers. In the 2003-04 season, United won 3-0 and 1-0 at this stage, but went only as far as losing […]

By Nick Harris 8 April 2010 The failure of England’s leading football clubs to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League was a predictable consequence of the declining value of the pound, and not a sporting aberration, according to a leading Cambridge academic. Lionel Page, a Frenchman resident in England, is a behavioural economist and […]