Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool ran out 1-0 winners over Mauricio Pochettino’s Chelsea thanks to a late extra-time goal from Reds captain Virgil van Dijk at Wembley on Sunday
Liverpool will earn just £100,000 in prize money after getting their hands on the Carabao Cup trophy, with losers Chelsea taking home £50,000.
The beaten semi-finalists – Fulham and Middlesbrough – banked only £25,000 for reaching the last four, with those knocked out in the earlier rounds not making a penny in prize money.
It pales in comparison to the £100m+ on offer to the Premier League winners and a similar amount available to the Champions League victors. This season’s FA Cup winners, by comparison, will make about £4m in prize money – and the winners of the third round, when the Premier League sides entered, all made £105,000.
But beyond the base-level prize money, the League Cup remains a valuable asset to the EFL and its clubs down the pyramid. Its total annual value is estimated to be worth £80m and every club receives 45 per cent of the takings from all matches throughout the competition – which is of huge benefit to lower league sides who are drawn with one of the big guns. Gate receipts are also split in half.
About £50m of the £80m fee ends up with clubs from the 72 in the second to fourth tiers and not far off a third of the “basic award” payment – the flat fee each is club guaranteed – is generated by the competition. Clubs also bank additional money from being broadcast live on TV with a £100,000 facility fee paid from the early rounds.
Sunday’s game was a repeat of the 2022 showpiece, which ended with Liverpool winning 11-10 in a remarkable penalty shootout in which Chelsea’s then-goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga missed his spot kick and the Reds’ Caoimhin Kelleher scored. Ben Chilwell said Sunday’s game is “massive” because “we want to get revenge.”
But it wasn’t to be for Chilwell and Chelsea as Virgil van Dijk won the final for the Reds after netting a last-gap header in extra time to take the trophy back to Merseyside.
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