It is the holy grail for the modern major football club, but the booming financial benefits of Champions League qualification can be slightly exaggerated. Uefa has tired a little of the accusation that its competition, the most glamorous and prestigious for clubs in world football, is responsible for solidifying success in the hands of the already very rich, pointing out that Champions League income is in fact a small proportion of Premier League clubs' overall wealth.

As Chelsea renew their campaign for qualification against Arsenal on Saturday, and Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United also challenge for the top four, there is truth on both sides of the argument. Champions League income is a minority part of the top English clubs' total earnings, but it remains significant enough to give them a real financial and sporting advantage over those who finish outside the top four.

Uefa has made a total of €1.1bn from TV and sponsorship rights for this season's competition, of which 79%, €865m, is shared by the participating clubs. The other 21% is retained by Uefa to cover its costs and make distributions across European football, and for investment. Each club's Champions League earnings cannot be predicted precisely because they are distributed according to a complex formula designed to be weighted in favour of the bigger clubs in the richer leagues.

Of the €865m, 55% will be paid in fixed amounts, from the group stage (€3.9m for participating, €550,000 per match), plus win and draw bonuses, rising through each round up to €9m for the winners from the final alone. The other 45% of the €865m is distributed according to a formula: it calculates a comparative value for each country's TV market and then the individual clubs from each country are paid partly according to where they finished the previous season when they qualified. The Premier League champions receive 40% of this pot, the second-placed club 30%, the third-placed club 20% and the fourth-placed club 10%. The clubs then receive another payment from the 45% element, according to how far they progress in the competition.

The system was thrashed out in intense negotiations with the clubs, who threatened a breakaway competition in the late 1990s, before their demands for more money were met. In short, it seeks to balance fixed payments for each round with rewards for the better performing clubs from the richer leagues. English clubs, therefore, earn comparatively well.

Last season Arsenal, knocked out in the round of 16 by Barcelona, the eventual winners, earned just under €30m (£24.5m) from Uefa's distribution of its TV and marketing pool. Chelsea, who lost to Manchester United in the quarter-finals, were paid €44.5m (£36.4m). United, who reached the final at Wembley, where they lost to Lionel Messi and the other Barcelona talents, were rewarded with €53m (£43.3m). Spurs, in their first ever Champions League season, ended by Real Madrid in the quarter-finals, were paid €31m (£25.34m).

Uefa, when criticised, point out these figures represent relatively small portions of the clubs' overall earnings: Arsenal's Champions League distributed earnings were 11% of the club's total £225m income last year; Chelsea's were 16% of their £226m turnover; Spurs' payment from Uefa represented 15% of their total earnings. Even United's meaty £43m from reaching the final was only 13% of the club's record turnover, £331m last year.

These figures do not, however, include the lucrative nature of a Champions League match night, of which all income goes solely to the home club. So United and Arsenal particularly, who earn fabulously from matches, bring in substantially more.

By comparison, the Europa League's long Thursday nights for the clubs who miss out is small beer – a total pot of €200m for all clubs next season, less than a fifth of the Champions League. Last season Manchester City and Liverpool, both knocked out in the round of 16, were paid €6m each, comparative peanuts given the expense, financial and in playing terms, of taking part.

The Champions League, in summary, is not quite the huge earner it is often depicted to be compared to the lucre in the Premier League, but it does entrench the advantage of the already successful. Besides the achievement and prestige of playing on the grandest stage, it also provides a profile, broadcast in 220 countries, to which all big clubs aspire, and in turn makes them more from their own sponsorships and commercial activities.

That is why, taken together, the four places for which the top clubs are battling remain so coveted a prize.