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Liverpool are back in the Champions League group stages for just the second time in eight years.

It is hoped returning to play in Europe's elite competition will help Liverpool attract top quality players to the club – there's still a week or so to go in the transfer window, don't forget – as well as securing the financial rewards which will help pay for their fees and wages.

So just how much is Champions League qualification worth to Liverpool?

Let's take a closer look.

How it works

Basically there are two ways of earning money directly from the UEFA Champions League - from performance and from your share of TV rights, distributed through what is called the “market pool”.

Liverpool's last trip to the Champions League group stages saw them earn €33.9m, despite a fairly dismal campaign which yielded just six points.

The performance element sees money shared out from a fixed amount, which for this season was €761.9 million. Teams earn rewards for how many games they win and of course how far they go in the competition.

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The second element of market pool was worth €507 million this year. This part of the financial aspect favours English clubs because it takes into account which league you come from in distributing the TV cash.

The big leagues like England take the biggest slice.

For example in 2014-15 Liverpool earned almost €23m from market pool despite finishing third in their group.

Basel - who finished second in the Reds' group - got only €3.25m because of the relative weakness of the Swiss TV market.

A strong performance still helps because market pool takes account of the number of matches played by each team.

It is also weighted slightly towards how teams performed in their previous year's league performance.

That benefited second place Liverpool back in 2014-15 but will work slightly against them next year after finishing fourth.

It also helps if fewer teams from your league are competing for that market pool share.

Perhaps the best example of this was in the 2014-15 season when Barcelona lifted the trophy.

As champions they received €24.6m in market pool cash as they had to share it with fellow Spanish teams Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Athletic Bilbao.

Juventus on the other hand got a massive €58.2 million from the market pool because only they and AS Roma from Italy played in the group stages and Roma were knocked out at that stage, leaving Juventus with a huge windfall.

For another comparison, Leicester City reached the quarter-finals last season and took home a total of £66.15m.

Arsenal and Manchester City earned £52.86m and £40.85m respectively after losing in the round of 16 while Tottenham Hotspur were handed £35.42m having failed to reach the knockout stages.

The group stages

UEFA have yet to finalise this season's prize money, but there was a boost to performance-related funding in the group stages last term.

Every team who gets to the group stages proper receives a participation bonus of €12.7m. Liverpool also receive €2m for negotiating the play-off round.

Added to that are performance bonuses worth €1.5m for a win and €500,000 for a draw.

So an average showing of two wins, two draws and two loses would collect about €16.7m in performance payments at this stage.

The last 16

If Liverpool were to make it out of the group stages there is a further boost to prize money, while of course continuing to increase their market pool share in the background.

Making it to the last 16 would be worth at least another €6m in fixed payments to each of the qualifying teams.

The quarter-finals

If Jurgen Klopp's men were to get on a roll and make it through to the last eight, another prize money bonus of at least €6.5m would be payable.

The semi-finals and final

Okay we're getting ridiculously hopeful now!

But the semi-finalists this year get an extra €7.5m.

The runner-ups will take an extra €11m on top of that and the winners between Juventus and Real Madrid will grab an extra €15m bonus.

So the winners this year will have earned between €54m and €57m in prize money plus probably around €40m-€50m in market pool cash.

An English winner would see that market pool increase even further and a victory would certainly be worth more than €100m in total.

The spin-offs

The return of the Champions League will also boost match day revenue at Anfield.

Last season 31 home games generated about £62.4m in match day revenue, so around £2m each game.

That figure per game will have increased considerably with the addition of the new Main Stand and the extra 8,500 seats and hospitality available.

(Image: James Maloney)

Champions League fixtures would no doubt be extremely popular with the corporate market.

Making it to the Champions League may also trigger some bonuses for Liverpool with corporate sponsors who will be benefiting from the extra exposure around the world.

Further deals could follow if that place in the group stages is confirmed.

Conclusion

While it's difficult to be absolutely certain on figures - performance payments were boosted by about 10% this year and might rise again - it is easy to see from the figures what a huge opportunity the Champions League offers for Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool.

Top players come at huge cost but Europe's premier competition offers a huge incentive to go and get them and a huge return to help pay for them.