First of all, this is a discussion with the purpose of exploring better avenues for both game and players.
Glad to see that people engage in this and there are few ideas running around if you ask me.
Second, maybe a mixed approach would be appropriate with some tweaks from what been said so far.
If you ask me…3rd and 4th place in CL / continental should NOT be rewarded at all. Playing in ghost leagues…. like Ireland, Norway or Scotland to name a few… would just give a reward to some places without forcing them to grow their team. They have the qualification easy? Fine! But to get into the money should be given them a run for it: You wanna a reward then get 2rd . This way decent opponents in weak countries cannot monopolize internal competitions and have a bonus of CL also.
Group stage should be awarded slightly more for 1st and 2nd as it is normal irl… for example instead of 40 euro each…a 50 30 euro will be equal to same prize fund given at the moment next games draw is random and is not conditional like irl.
Then you have the remaining pot for the eliminatory stages, no?
A good idea I think would be to mix what Nicmo, Ralf and I said.
From here on pay for victory however the prize should be bigger from stage to stage with balancing the funds a bit more before the final and chopping the final prize a bit.
Eq. 8ths % < 4ths % < semis % < final %
However, this takes us to the first post of the thread “The winner takes it all!”. So, in my opinion, I think instead of paying for win …an 80% -20% split would bring a higher reinvestment of the prize in the game.
Regarding Continental Cup…The final pot should not be high enough to tempt me kiss goodbye CL and drop on 3rd place because I feel I can get 500-700 euro from there with weaker opponents and less stress and tabaco. This can be easily done…by giving a bigger split for lower tier awards.
P.S. The main of thread was to discuss and see what avenues are there to favor all and keep it excting at more levels. So feel free to try show what you think is a better way.