Champions League money up despite downturn

The report - commissioned by MasterCard, one of the sponsors of the Champions League, ahead of Friday's knockout-stage draw - also found clubs reaching the knockout phase of the competition had earned an average of 50 million euros each.

This estimate included an average of 14 million euros from prize money and 10 million from ticket sales.

"The Champions League is probably the world's most valuable annual soccer club competition," professor Simon Chadwick of Coventry University in England, who conducted the study, told Reuters.

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