Revealed: Aston Villa net £75million Champions League windfall

Wednesday’s thrilling 4-2 win over Celtic earned Unai Emery’s team a top-eight finish in the league phase and added an extra £11m alone to an already healthy money pot.

The exploits of Emery and his players has now earned more than £40m in prize money which, when added to gate receipts and broadcasting income, has given Villa’s revenues a major boost while also helping to the club’s position with regard to Premier League profit and sustainability rules.

Villa recently moved back onto the list of the world’s top-20 revenue generating clubs for the first time in more than a decade, after seeing their income boosted by nearly £50m last season.

But those figures are set to be dwarfed by the success of the current campaign, their first ever in the cash-rich Champions League, where competing clubs share a total prize pot of more than £2billion.

Villa earned more than £15m simply for qualifying for the league phase of the competition, courtesy of last season’s fourth-placed finish in the Premier League.

Their surprise success in securing a top-eight finish and progressing straight through to the last-16, skipping next month’s play-off round, has reaped further big rewards.

Villa’s haul of 16 points in the league phase, which came courtesy of wins over Young Boys, Bologna, RB Leipzig, Celtic and Bayern Munich, netted around £9.4m in prize money.

In addition, they will receive £9.2m for reaching the last-16, another £1.7m for the top-eight finish, while their final league placing of eighth was also worth £7.1m in ranking bonuses.

When put together with gate receipts and broadcast income, thought to total more than £30m combined, it adds up to a total figure of around £75m.

At least one more big night at Villa Park is to come with Emery’s men due to host either Sporting Lisbon, Club Brugge, Borussia Dortmund or Atalanta in the second leg of a last-16 tie. Villa will know more about their potential opponents and possible path through the rest of the competition after Friday’s play-off round draw.

Their last-16 place was secured in dramatic fashion with a victory over Celtic which remained in the balance before Morgan Rogers put the result beyond doubt when he completed his hat-trick in stoppage time.

Even then Villa’s players and supporters faced a nervous wait before confirmation of Atalanta had drawn 2-2 at Barcelona, the result Emery’s men needed in order to leapfrog the Italian club in the standings. Players and coaching staff crowded around the dugout area, watching the closing stages of that match on a tablet.

"We started talking about the top eight after beating Bayern Munich at home,” said Emery.

“We had to try to be ambitious with the possibility of getting it. Last week I was very upset after Monaco. After the result I was not positive. 

“But we got it and we will avoid two matches, but sometimes it is better to play as you can show your capacity and potential. 

“Our first priority was to get the last-16 and we are not contenders to win at the end, but we want to compete and this is the most important objective."

In addition to the financial boost, Villa’s injury-hit squad has avoided the prospect of playing six matches in the space of 17 days next month by missing the play-off round.

Midfielder Jacob Ramsey said: “Our squad is a little bit thin at the moment. 

“I don’t know who we are bringing in (in terms of signings) but yeah, I think we need the rest rather than play those two extra games and hopefully we can recover and get some of the injured players back.”