Arsenal beat Atletico Madrid 1-0 on Tuesday to complete a 2-1 aggregate victory and reach the Champions League final in Budapest. The north London club will play either Bayern Munich or Paris Saint-Germain on May 30, with a first European crown still on the line.
The run has already brought Arsenal £122m in UEFA prize money, including £16m for reaching the semi-final, and they could add another £10m by winning the final and lifting the trophy for the first time. That haul matters because Arsenal spent £267m on eight new signings last summer and brought in only £10m from player sales, leaving a gap of £257m that the club has been trying to narrow.
Arsenal's latest figures, published in February, showed a pre-tax loss of £1.4m, but the Champions League earnings have strengthened their position ahead of the next transfer window. The club wants a more even balance between spending and sales than it managed last summer, especially with the Premier League's new Squad Cost Ratio rule coming into force next season and limiting squad costs to 85 per cent of revenue.
That pressure has already been felt in the squad. Ben White, Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli have been linked with moves, while Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri have also been mentioned as possible sales. Jakub Kiwior is expected to leave after Porto activated a clause to sign him for £19m, a move that could help formalise Piero Hincapie's permanent £45m switch from Bayer Levekusen.
For Arsenal, the final in Budapest is about more than a trophy. The prize money has changed the shape of the summer before a ball has been kicked in it, and victory on May 30 would give the club both its biggest European reward and another £10m to push through the next round of business.
