New financial papers confirm £20m windfall for West Ham thanks to the club’s Europa League success this season.
A poisoned chalice, more hassle than its worth, a distraction, a burden.
They are just some of the phrases used year in, year out by some fans and pundits to describe taking part in the Europa League.
Not for West Ham, though. In fact it has been anything but those things.
David Moyes’s side cruised through the group stage with a game to spare.
Finishing top earned West Ham a place in the last 16 of the brilliantly reformatted Europa League.
That means a four-month break from European competition with West Ham knowing they are just three ties from a potential final when the last 16 gets under way in March.
In February everyone connected with West Ham can sit back and watch as the Champions League dropouts do battle with the Europa League second placed sides for the right to play against the likes of the Hammers in the last 16.
It’s not just on the pitch that West Ham’s European campaign has been a great success but off it too.
That’s after new financial papers were released showing West Ham have ALREADY made a whopping £20 million in revenue from the competition so far.
New financial papers confirm £20m windfall for West Ham thanks to Europa League success
The football finance blogger Swiss Ramble released details of West Ham’s Europa League revenue to his near 200k following.
And it shows the Hammers have coined in £20m so far, including just under £1m in a bonus payment for winning the group.
“Revenue is much smaller in the Europa League, where West Ham have earned €24m (£20m) to date, including €1.1m (£950k) bonus for winning their group and reaching the last 16, while Leicester have €22m (£18.75m). English TV pool is very important to earnings here (this is a modeled figure).”
With potentially four more ties to play and the prize pot for the winner should West Ham go all the way there is plenty more where that came from too.
Poisoned chalice? More like the golden goose if you approach it in the right way.
Which is exactly what Moyes and his team have done.
And the Scot should be rewarded by being handed every penny of it for transfers by co-owners David Sullivan, Daniel Kretinsky and David Gold.