Pirates fought back from a 0-3 deficit in the first leg but then lost on post-match penalties to St Eloi Lupopo of the Democratic Republic of Congo in Soweto on Saturday to miss out on the Champions League group phase in a major blow to their finances.
The minimum prize money in the Champions League group phase is $700,000, going up to $4 million for the winner, plus a vastly more lucrative berth in the next Club World Cup in 2029.
But Pirates will receive only $100,000 for participating in this year’s Champions League, unlikely to even be enough to cover their costs of playing two rounds of preliminary knockout competition, including chartering a plane to Lubumbashi for last weekend’s first leg.
This is only the second year that clubs eliminated from African club competition before the group phase receive money. It has been increased from $50,000 last season but is still markedly less than the lucrative spoils for the 16 clubs who advance to the group phase.
Sundowns last season made $2-million as Champions League runners-up and also more than $10-million for playing in the Club World Cup in U.S. They qualified for the tournament on the back of their Champions League performances over the previous four years.
They are through to the Champions League group phase for an 11th successive season after a 7-1 aggregate triumph over Remo Stars over Nigeria.
Chiefs and Stellenbosch are guaranteed a minimum of $400,000 as they qualified on Sunday for the African Confederation Cup group phase but will be hoping for a lot more if they do well in the competition.
Last year, the Confederation of African Football announced a new prize money structure for both the Champions League and the Confederation Cup, and the monies handed out after the 2024-25 campaign are expected to stay the same for this season.
The last increase in prize monies for the two competitions was a 40% improvement.
In the Champions League, the winner gets $4 million – an increase from the $2.5 million for the winner of the 2024 final.
The runner-up will receive $2 million. The semi-finalists receive $1.2 million each, while each club that reaches the quarter-finals will receive $900,000.
Teams that finish in third and fourth place in the group stage will each receive $700,000, bringing the total prize pool to $17.6 million.
In the Confederation Cup, the prize money for the winner has increased from $1.25 million to $2 million. The runner-up gets $1 million, with $750,000 for the semi-finalists and $550,000 for those teams eliminated in the quarter-finals.
The teams eliminated in the group phase receive $400,000.