For many it is an obstacle in the calendar, but the Italian Cup is worth 10 million euros to whoever wins it. And it is a door to Europe. This is why no one can afford to snub her.
Many like him but not everyone, at least judging by the large turnover that many coaches do. Inter’s Cristian Chivu was furious when they told him that having qualified for the semi-final would also have created a movement of criticism, with the first leg match falling in the week leading up to the Scudetto derby. The Italian Cup comes to life and, despite the debate on crowded calendars, it always remains a matter of money rather than heart.
How much? Around ten million euros for whoever manages to lift the trophy in the final in Rome, now one of the happenings of the season, also paving the way for the Europa League in case of failure to directly qualify for the international cups and giving the certainty of participating in the Italian Super Cup even with a reduced format and not with that of the final four which alone guarantees another nice check.
For a few years now, in fact, the Italian Cup as designed by the League has begun to attract investments from television stations and, consequently, to provide a decent prize pool to the teams that make the most progress. Simplifying, winning the trophy means putting around 10 million euros in your pocket considered one or two proceeds in your stadium which, being the format designed to protect the big teams, have often been high-level matches.
The Italian Cup is broadcast by Mediaset, which secured the TV rights in the latest auction by paying a fee of 56 million euros plus production costs for each season of the contract. Until 2024 the figure was lower, 48 million euros, a sign that the cup is popular even if it disturbs and is often criticized for its format and overlapping commitments.
How the distribution of the prize money works depends on the progression within the board. We start to gain something from the round of 16:
- Qualification for the round of 16 – 400 thousand euros;
- Qualification for the quarter-finals – 800 thousand euros;
- Qualification for the semi-final – 1.5 million euros;
- Losing finalist – 1.9 million euros;
- Winning team – 4.4 million euros.
A drop in the ocean of budgets worth hundreds of millions of euros, but enough to push clubs not to snub a cup in which the path for a big team is limited to five matches, the first two of which are almost certainly at home and with a tennis scoreboard that avoids big matches.
