UEFA Solidarity Payments Increase to Scottish Clubs

The Premiership clubs could, in theory, choose to share the record solidarity pot with the Championship

UEFA sent to the SFA, and all other national associations, the exact details of the distribution of solidarity payments – money given to all clubs in the division that don’t participate in the league phases of European football. The documents cover two main parts, the last payment of solidarity payments under the old cycle (relating to season 2023/24) and the methodology for calculating the payments to be paid in the new cycle (relating to current season 2024/25).

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OLD FORMAT – 2023/24

These payments will be paid over the course of the 2024/25 season, for distribution to clubs in support of youth development. This is the last season where the payments are paid in the following year - under the new system the solidarity payments will be distributed during the season they result from. That means that this season, SPFL clubs will receive two seasons worth of solidarity payments.

For last season (2023/24) the total amount available as solidarity payments to all clubs in Europe that did not participate in the group stages is €178.5m. The top 5 leagues will receive €8.5m each leaving €136m to be distributed among associations outside the top five:

€61.2m (45%) to associations WITH a club in the 2023/24 UCL group stage & €74.8m (55%) to associations WITHOUT a club in the 2023/24 UCL group stage.

The pot is then divvied up, with 10% based on TV market value and 90% based on UEFA coefficient rankings, to give each country a place in the payments rankings. Despite being 9th in the Coefficient rankings and Denmark 17th for the season in question, their TV deal saw them receive a higher share than us. We received a total pot of €6.915m and for reference, if we didn't have a team in the Champions League we would have received €4.34m; so Celtic’s participation was worth an extra €2.575m or €286,000 per club.

Last season's solidarity payment pots, one list for the nations that did have a team in the UCL group stage and one list for the nations that did not. Scotland will receive just under €7m, to distribute between the 9 Premiership clubs that did not participate in group stages last season.

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DISTRIBUTION OF 23/24 SOLIDARITY PAYMENTS

The total pot of €6.9m will be sent by UEFA to the SFA in January/February, which must then immediately be transferred in full to the relevant clubs. The money given to a national association should be distributed equally between all top-division clubs that were not involved in the group stage of the 2023/24. This means that every club that was in the SPFL last season, excluding Celtic, Rangers & Aberdeen will receive €766,666 this month (February 2025) as their 2023/24 Solidarity Payment (£639k).

Reasoned requests for specific changes (i.e. distributing to lower division clubs) can be applied for via the UEFA administration. This money should be used ONLY for clubs’ youth development activities and local community programmes. For the 2023/24 payments, there are no strict club licensing criteria but all clubs receiving a payment must, have an approved youth development programme.

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NEW FORMAT - 2024/25

As UEFA informed us last year, the overall solidarity pot has increased from 4% to 7% of projected total UEFA revenue, up to a yearly amount of €308m - nearly 80% more than the €175m allocated last season.