Liverpool are two games away from the Champions League final, edging closer to more silverware and an even greater financial boost than the £85m plus that they have already accrued from their run to the semi-finals of the competition this year.
Standing between Jurgen Klopp's men and a May 28 date in Paris with either Manchester City or Real Madrid is Villarreal, a side who have defied the odds for some years now to upset the elite at the top table despite representing a town of just 50,000 and having finances dwarfed by many of those they are competing against, most certainly among those who remain in this year's Champions League.
When local businessman Fernando Roig took control of the club in 1997 they were a second tier Spanish side with a proud but unspectacular history, spending much of their time having flitted between the third and fourth tier of the national game. Roig had vowed to do things differently through not owing money to people, investing in youth and spending wisely in pursuit of success, and since 1997 they have been part of La Liga for all but two seasons, finishing inside the top 10 in 16 of their 21 La Liga campaigns, finishing runners up in 2007/08.
They have also amassed 44 Champions League games and 126 UEFA Cup/Europa League games, winning last season's Europa League with a penalty shootout victory over Manchester United. It was Villarreal's first major honour in their history, but for manager Unai Emery it was his fourth Europa League title as manager, having won the competition three times with Sevilla.
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Villarreal have had to take a different route in order to compete. A ground that holds just 23,500 and with crowds a fraction of what the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid can pull in has meant that player trading has been key, with the money accrued going back in to the squad as well as helping to invest in the infrastructure of the club. In some ways they are more aligned with Liverpool's business focused model under Fenway Sports Group, although the numbers involved differ vastly.
Liverpool host Villarreal, nicknamed 'the Yellow Submarine' at Anfield this evening before heading to the Estadio de la Ceramica on Tuesday next week with a place in the final of European football's biggest competition on the line.
Football isn't played on paper and the numbers on a balance sheet won't determine the outcome of tomorrow's game, although the sheer size of the figures involved would suggest that the scales are tipped firmly in Liverpool's favour. So, what are the figures and how are they so vastly different?
First off there is the wage bill. Liverpool's wage bill, going by the most recent set of accounts published earlier this year that covered the 2020/21 period, stands at £314m, a drop of £11m from the previous year which had included bonus payments made for winning the Champions League in 2019. In comparison, according to figures presented on social media by football finance analyst Swiss Ramble, Villarreal spend some £234m less at £80m (€95m) than the Reds. That expenditure has, however, a higher wages to turnover ratio, with Liverpool's £314m spend 64.4 per cent of turnover of £487m, while Villarreal's stands at 76.5 per cent of their £104.5m (€124m) turnover. Villarreal's revenue is just 21 per cent of what Liverpool deliver, a gap of some £382.5m. UEFA recommend a wages to turnover ratio of 70 per cent.
To put Villarreal's revenue into some context, despite it being the fifth highest in Spain, aided by European success, the £104.5m would not be anywhere near enough to even see the club make the top 30 of the Deloitte Money League, where the 30th placed side, Lazio, has revenues of £138.1m (€164m). Villarreal trail the likes of Southampton, Newcastle United, Everton, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Aston Villa, Leicester City, Leeds United and West Ham United when it comes to revenues, all of the clubs making the top 30 of the Money League in 2022, a list in which Liverpool sit seventh.
Squad cost shows up another huge financial chasm between the two sides. Liverpool, who have a track record for spending less frivolously than some of their rivals, have still made major outlays in recent years when it comes to their first team squad, most notably through the additions of £75m Virgil van Dijk and £66m Alisson Becker, as well as other hefty price tags attached to the deals for Naby Keita, Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota among others. The squad cost, according to Swiss Ramble figures, stands at £709m.
In comparison, Villarreal, whose most expensive signing arrived last summer in the form of Arnaut Danjuma from AFC Bournemouth for £21.15m, have a squad value of £563m less than the Reds, standing at £146m. Notable additions in recent years have been Paco Alcacer for £20m from Borussia Dortmund, Pervis Estupinan from Watford for £14.8m and Gerardo Moreno from Espanyol for £18m.
In terms of market value of the two sides, football website Transfermarkt have the current squad value of Liverpool pegged at around £810.5m, while placing Villarreal's at around £344.25m, less than half of the Reds' market value.
So far in this season's Champions League Liverpool have earned the most of any team through prize money after winning all of their group games on their way to the last four. The Reds have earned just shy of £85m by estimates when including TV market pool money and could well earn as much as £130m should they win the competition, a figure that would eclipse the £113m generated by winning the 2019 competition. Villarreal have so far earned £57.3m (€68.1m) from their Champions League endeavours this season, a figure hampered by a lower UEFA coefficient, smaller market pool and less victories than the Reds en route to the semi-final.
Other notable differences between the two lie in how much they are able to command from their commercial partners. Liverpool have a kit deal with Nike that is worth a flat £30m per year but where the Reds get 20 per cent of royalties on the sale of Liverpool/Nike merchandise, something that has the potential to be worth up to £70m, according to some industry analysts. Villarreal, in contrast, have a deal with Joma that was inked in January of this year and worth a reported £11.8m (€14m) plus add-ons over a seven-year period.
But regardless of the financial gulf that exists, Villarreal have managed to find success by spending less, reaching the semi-final of the Champions League with zero gross debt while the likes of Barcelona exited the competition at the group stages and are wrangling with more than £1bn worth of debt.
The figures suggest that this particular semi-final doesn't appear a fair fight, at least where the numbers are concerned. But a side that has already dumped out one of European football's financial heavyweights in Bayern Munich, as Klopp will be well aware, is not one to be taken lightly.
