FOOTBALL AND MONEY Steaua, an athletic record and financial performance

Steaua Bucureşti has successfully beaten an athletic record, the number of consecutive qualifications into the groups of the Champions League and of Europa League. The match with the Lithuanians on the return leg was a mere formality, as the 3-0 score further consecrated a historic qualification. The elimination of Ekranas brought about the 9th consecutive qualification in the groups won by a team coming from the qualification streams, a record in the 20 years that the current system was used. So far Steaua is tied with Dinamo Kiev, with 8 consecutive qualifications. Aside from the heavily publicized athletic feat, it needs to be said that Steaua has successfully turned the participation in the European competitions into a very profitable venture. Its eight qualifications into the groups, of which three into the Champions League, earned the club about 36,000,000 million Euros (from the UEFA), quite significant compared to its annual budget. Running a few calculations shows that the money earned from the international inter-club competitions, with the proceeds from the tickets sold for those games (over 18 million Euros) and the amounts earned from the TV broadcasting rights from the Romanian First League (Liga 1) account for most of the club's revenue. Since the amounts earned from Europa League have increased significantly, it's not just the groups of the Champions League that represent a major challenge; besides the money from the UEFA, a team can make substantial revenue from the sale of tickets for the games played at home, especially if it gets reputable opponents thanks to the draw. This autumn, Steaua will bring to Bucharest VfB Stuttgart (Germany), FC Copenhagen (Denmark), Molde (Norway). The draw was good from a competitive point of view, but less so in terms of the number of ticket sales.

Over the last six years, by participating in the groups of the Champions League, Romanian clubs earned 83,813,000 Euros, as follows: Steaua (23,106,000 Euros - three tournaments), CFR Cluj (24,605,000 Euros - two tournaments) and Unirea Urziceni (17,720,000 Euros -one tournament), Oţelul Galaţi (18,382,000 - one tournament). It needs to be said that over the last three years, the amounts earned by the teams which qualified in the groups of the League have increased significantly, which heavily benefited CFR Cluj, Unirea Urziceni and Oţelul Galaţi.

Bonuses in Europa League have also increased. One year ago Steaua earned 3,136,783 Euros (1,516,783 in TV broadcasting and marketing rights alone) following the participation in the Europa League groups, double the amount it earned in the 2009- 2010 season, - 1,582,399 Euros (600,000 Euros participation , 300,000 Euros bonus for the matches, 240,000 Euros performance bonus and 442,399 Euros in TV broadcasting and marketing rights). The jump is obvious, and this year, the club may make double what it made last year (close to 6,000,000 Euros). In order to reach that goal, the team needs to win a few points in the group matches. Since Dinamo and FC Vaslui did not make the groups, the market - pool amount will increase 100%.