UEL & UECL: Squad value analysis of the teams that qualified for the play-off stage
| Updated: February 15, 2023 
Earlier this week, SportingPedia unveiled the teams from the premier continental competition, and today, we are taking a look at the squad values, each pair’s disparity, and the total valuation of the teams that will compete in the Europa League and the Europa Conference League play-off stage. Teams that finished third in the group stage of the Champions League are demoted and paired with teams that came in second in the group stage of the Europa League. The current Europa Conference League stage’s rules are identical to those of the Europa League and use the same relegation mechanism.
- Barcelona-Manchester United is the only Europa League matchup with a combined player worth of over €1 billion
- Four of the eight encounters exceed €500 million in combined value
- At the same time the Barcelona and Manchester United pair is also the most evenly matched one in terms of market value, with only €5.9 million separating the two teams
- The total value of the sixteen teams to compete at this stage is €4.87 billion
- The match-up between Juventus and Nantes represents the biggest disparity between the teams in terms of value
- Only 4 of the 16 teams exceed the €100 million mark in market value
- The Italian clubs Lazio and Fiorentina are the only two with estimates of over €200 million
- Two teams are worth less than €15 million, and they both were demoted from the Europa League
- The pair with the highest combined value is Braga-Fiorentina at €348.65 million
- The only pair with value of under €50 million is AEK Larnaca-Dnipro-1
- The pair with the biggest difference in the squads’ value is the one of Lazio and CFR Cluj, with €234.77 million separating the sides
- Bodo/Glimt-Lech Poznan is the most evenly-matched pair in terms of the teams’ combined value
The Most Valuable Teams & Pairs:
Whenever Manchester United meet Barcelona on the field, the games are always highly anticipated by fans and media alike. We used to watch this rivalry in the Champions League, but now the Red Devils and Barca have been drawn against each other in the play-offs of the Europa League. The upcoming fixtures will be the first competitive meetings between both clubs outside of the Champions League. The pair’s combined valuation of €1,518.1 million is the only one of the eight Europa League battles exceeding the €1 billion mark. Barcelona has the highest value of any Europa League participant, surpassing their opponents Manchester United by just €5.9 million. These are the only two clubs left in the competition with squad valuations exceeding €500 million. Two clubs from the Italian Serie A have the most valuable squads in the Europa Conference League tournament. In fact, Lazio and Fiorentina are the only two teams worth over €200 million. Fiorentina helps form the pair with the highest market value, as the Serie A side will come up against Braga, with the battle between Italians and Portuguese estimated at €348.65 million.
The Least Valuable Teams & Pairs:
Sporting Lisbon-Midtjylland is the Europa League’s pair with the lowest combined value and the only one that does not surpass the €300-million mark, stopping at €257.8 million. Midtjylland is the only team at this stage of the tournament with a value of less than €50 million at €34.5 million. There will be only 2 teams with a market value below €50 million to participate in the play-offs of the Europa Conference League – Sheriff Tiraspol and Qarabag – and they are both joining the competition from the Europa League after finishing in 3rd position in their respective groups. AEK Larnaca-Dnipro-1 is the only participant in the tournament that fails to meet the €50-million mart in combined valuation. Тhis will be the one with the lowest combined market value оf all three European club tournaments matches, €47 million.
The Most Evenly Matched Pairs:
The clash between Barca and Manchester United also represents the pair with the lowest margin in the teams’ values in the Europa League, with just €5.9 million separating the Red Devils from Los Cules. When we look at the most evenly matched teams in the Europa Conference League, we see that Bodo/Glimt and Lech Poznan are separated by just €2.38 million.
Pairs with the Biggest Disparity:
The biggest gap between the values of two teams drawn against one another in the Europa League can be found in the Juventus-Nantes pair, where the Italian club’s players are worth €324 million more than those of its French opponent. In terms of disparity, the Europa Conference League pair of Lazio and CFR Cluj comes out on top with a €234.77-million margin between the two clubs.