Beating Hapoel Beer-Sheva to reach the group stage of the Champions League will earn Celtic the best part of £30m even if Brendan Rodgers team flop and finish bottom of their group.
Last year UEFA were able to make a 40% increase in the money paid to clubs taking part in the Champions League thanks to the new broadcasting deal announced with BT Sports and others.
The last time Celtic played in the Champions League UEFA had € 904m to distribute, last season they paid out €1,257m with winners Real Madrid collecting € 94m.
Simply for reaching the play-off stage Celtic receive €2m, by qualifying for the group phase UEFA will pay out €12m. Any group stage win is worth €1.5m while a draw will earn a modest €0.5m, assuming one win and one draw Celtic can expect to €16m pay out.
In addition to that source UEFA also have a market pool payout which is calculated based on the television market share and divided by the number of competing clubs.
For UEFA purposes Celtic are included with the English clubs but get a lesser share although that can be built up if they are in a group which includes teams from major nations like Spain and Italy, in 2013 Celtic had Barcelona, AC Milan and Ajax for company.
If Manchester City fail to get past Steaua Bucharest then the UK market pool will be split four ways rather than five depending on various factors.
This season UEFA are dedicating €483m to the market pool at a very rough guess Celtic can expect to pick up around €10m, adding that to the €16m from earlier should ensure a cheque for £22m on it’s way to the club. In the 2013/14 Champions League campaign Celtic received €17.5m from UEFA.
Looking solely at gate money and tickets priced at £25 for the home play-off match Celtic can bank £1.5m from the play off match, if tickets average £30 per match for the group phase that generates £1.8m per match creating a total of £6.9m in ticket sales.
There are costs involved such as policing, stewarding, flights, hotels and VAT but the hospitality and merchandising spin offs should more than cover that creating the best part of £30m for the club- if they can get past Hapoel Beer-Sheva.