Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke can land £33.6m windfall for Mikel Arteta transfers

Arsenal will welcome Champions League football to the Emirates Stadium for the first time since 2017 next season – barring a collapse of their season.

The Gunners were bitterly unfortunate not to secure a top four finish at the end of last season. A run of four defeats in five games in April allowed bitter rivals Tottenham to swoop in and fill the final Champions League spot on the final day.

Instead, it was Europa League football and Arsenal are one of the bookmakers favourites to lift the trophy in Budapest – a possible maiden European title triumph.

The club have, so far, juggled domestic and continental action well. They currently lead the way in the Premier League and progressed through the Europa League group stage with little trouble from PSV Eindhoven. However, toward the end of the season, the fixtures will continue to stack up to form a Thursday-Sunday pattern.

But the aim is bringing Champions League football back to north London. The last time the club participated in the competition, they crashed out in the last 16 at the hands of Bayern Munich via a 10-2 aggregate scoreline. In fact, the club has not progressed past the last 16 since 2010.

Alongside the historic nights and opportunity to face some of Europe’s best players, the competition does include a hefty financial windfall. The Gunners owner Stan Kroenke has invested in the playing staff in recent windows with 14 players signed in the past two seasons.

Returning to Europe’s greatest stage would provide additional funds to be spent, but how much is exactly available for the Gunners? By using this season’s prize money allocation, the financial pull is massive when compared to the Europa League.

Of the €3.5billion (£3.019billion) gross revenue available for distribution to participating sides, €2.032bn (£1.753bn) of it is shared out to clubs competing in the Champions League with €2.002bn (£1.727bn) of that sum made available for clubs in the group stage onwards.

In the 2022/23 season, the 32 clubs in the group stage received a starting fee of €15.64m (£13.48m). Performance bonuses are available for victories and defeats – €2.8m (£2.4m) for a win and €930,000 (£802,000) for a draw. When comparing Arsenal’s group stage results this term, £35m would have been earned just for their performance in the group stage and qualification to the last-16.

An additional €10.6m (£9.1m) is given to quarter-finalists and €12.5m (£10.7m) for those who reach the semi-finals. Finalists receive €15.5m (£13.3m) with €4.5m (£3.8m) for the champions. The champions of Europe eventually come out with around £70m – depending on group stage results – before coefficient shares and market pool funds are sorted.