The UEFA Champions League final may have been the biggest game in the soccer world this weekend, but there’s one more prize being contested — and it has a potential value in the hundreds of millions.
Huddersfield Town and Nottingham Forest finished in third and fourth place in the English Football League. The first- and second-place finishers, Fulham and Bournemouth, have been automatically promoted to the Premier League next season. Sunday, at Wembley Stadium in London, Huddersfield Town and Nottingham Forest will play one another to determine which one of them grabs the coveted third spot.
This isn’t just for bragging rights and additional competitive opportunities, of course. The Premier League is an incredibly profitable enterprise, and for a team moving there from the English Football League, the rewards can be immense.
The professional services company Deloitte estimates that, between broadcast rights payments (a minimum of £90 million) and “parachute payments” designed to aid the team in the event of relegation (£80 million minimum across two seasons), the winner could see a financial windfall of £170 million. If they manage to avoid immediate relegation, that number could rise to £300 million. Such a payout could be transformative, so one can expect the two teams will be going all-out on Sunday.
Huddersfield Town and Nottingham Forest will face each other Sunday at 11:30 a.m. ET on ESPN+.