Atletico Madrid benefit from Barcelona’s Champions League exit with guaranteed €50m cash injection | OneFootball

It was a very disappointing night for two of La Liga’s big three in the Champions League, with Barcelona and Atletico Madrid losing out in the quarter-final ties against Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund respectively.

However, for Atleti at least, there is a silver lining. Barcelona’s exit has now confirmed that they will be participating at the 2025 Club World Cup – the first edition of the newly rebranded format of the tournament, which will take place in the United States.

The final place had been between Atleti and Barcelona, but the latter needed to reach the final of this season’s Champions League (with Atleti losing to Dortmund) in order to qualify for the tournament. Because they were also knocked out, it means that the Catalans miss out on participating at the tournament, which also comes with a guaranteed cash injection of approximately €50m.

This is massive for Atletico Madrid, especially because their financial situation is far from ideal. For the same reason, Barcelona would have dearly loved to qualify, but now they cannot, which is a big blow.