Champions League final hosts Bayern Munich are favorites to beat Chelsea at their home ground, but if they do win, their prize money will be going into the pockets of Bundesliga rivals Schalke and Hoffenheim.
UEFA will pay Bayern a ?9 million prize if they beat Chelsea, which also happens to be the combined total due in "success" clauses written into last summer's deal to bring goalkeeper Manuel Neuer from Schalke and the previous January's acquisition of Luiz Gustavo from Hoffenheim.
From Eurosport:
Schalke are already due ?2 million for Bayern having reached the semi-finals, but they will be due a further ?4 million from the Bavarian giants if they lift the trophy in two weeks' time.
And it doesn't stop there. Hoffenheim struck a smaller but otherwise almost identical deal with Bayern after they sold�Luiz Gustavo for ?17 million euros in January 2011.
Hoffenheim have already picked up a 1 million euro bonus for the Munich side making the semi-finals, and they'll be due another ?2 million if their rivals win the trophy.
That means that Bayern's entire ?9 million prize money would be wiped out at a stroke - and also means that, financially speaking, they'd be better off pocketing the ?5.6 million euros offered to the runner-up.
Of course, the ?9 million is just the prize for winning the final. Last season, finalists Barcelona and Manchester United�earned a total of about ?50 million each from a combination of performance payments and TV money. Not the mention all the cash made off of winner's merchandise and other indirect revenue streams. So if Bayern do win, they'll be more than happy to write those checks to Schalke and Hoffenheim.
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