At the moment the prizing system presents quite a hefty reward for the finalist. however maybe we should have a look at this. Despite of how much I adore "The winner takes it all" I personally think would be better for the health of the game to try a different approach: 

For semis and for final rather than having 0%-100% spilt I think will 20-80% split would favor all of us.

If the big pot gets spilt between 4 teams instead of 2... there is a higher chance more of the availble prizes will be reinvested in teams. 

Picture this: FC Y gets to final and gets beaten by FC X, most likely FC Y will use the prize to get better for next season. This could easily be the case for semi-finals also.

Is not a guarantee that by rewarding de semis and final this way there will be more money always spinning in reinforcing the teams, but there seem to be higher chances of this happening. 

+1

+1

as far as suggestion...i wanna point out something.

So, the third and four place in the group doesn't get anything for playing 6 matches. They are qualifying and let's say makes 5 points...finish 3 place in group...and absoluty no prize for them.

Depends...on what you want to achieve here. if you want teams to earn something...and make the continental cups more better...with more teams being competitive...maybe you should see the structure of continental competition in real life.

Here a suggestion :

4 place in group phase 10 euro

3 place in group phase 15 euro

2 place in group phase 30 euro

1 place in group phase 40 euro

1/8 winners 90 euro
1/4 winners 190 euro
1/2 winners 340 euro
Winner CL 211.44 euro
The total budget for this example...is the budget in this moment for Season 2 of Europe CL. 

Observation : We need a difference between 2 place in the group and 1 first in the group, is not the same thing.

We need a small prize for the teams that compete for 6 matches and doesnt advance futher.

If we want to not have a monopol for the good of the game...we have to disperce the money a little different...just like in real life CL competition.

Note: The sums are pure exemple...on how i view the structure prizes...with the budget that it is already in the game.

Champions League is the elite competition where only the best teams from each country will play. Everybody should earn something...regarless on the sum.

@ralf is a good point chopping the prizes off a bit and pay off more teams. 

@Ralph, there are many possible ways to redistribute the Champions League prizes, and your idea of lowering the first prize a bit to reward more users might not be a bad one.

However, you can't propose it using arguments that contradict your own suggestion. How can you think reserving a prize for the last place in the standings could stimulate competition?

Instead, I would suggest dividing the budget for advancing the group stage into prizes for wins and draws, like in tournaments. In that case, if the fourth place has collected some points, they will have a good reward, while if they end with all losses, they rightfully get nothing: this could be a way to encourage competition, not just handing out money regardless.

Keep in mind that the game has just started and is far from being fully operational, and League A is not at all the best league in each country; in fact, on the first page of the ranking of top leagues, there are several groups from Leagues B and C.

In some countries, the leader of League A still has only the initial players. Do we really want to give them money just for getting kicked around by the top clubs?

@maridiba my suggestion can be implemented in the future if nicmo decide that. Is not something that will be decided next week. And yes..in the group stage...you can implement something about wins and draws just like you said.

The main idea is that more teams needs to be rewarded, in my opinion, How much and how...here we can talk for hours.

we can also change to a victory bonus system, instead of paying for each successful stage, it could be per victory.

I dont remember now how many games each international competition has but if for example it was 150 matches, divide the total prize by 150, each win is rewarded the same. The finalists and winner get more because they played more matches and have more wins.

That seems a bit extreme, I was just referring to the budget for the group promotion. Splitting the budget as if the groups in the first stage were tournaments with 4 users. This way, you can reward also the 3rd and the 4th, but only if they perform well enough.

The prizes for the knockout stage look fine to me, same budget at each stage with a consequent doubling reward. There will be no point in building a top club if winning the trophy gives you about twice the prizes of the clubs losing at the first knockout stage.

@nicmo the knockout stages...and double leg yes?

if the knockout stages are double leg...and the final single match...you have 125 matches in one season of CL.

A winner should play 13 matches.

But the sistem with prizes for winning is not ok. people will stop trying to make a team to win CL, for obviouse math reasons.

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.

FYI

The way it is now, in europe the total pot is divided equally per stage win, 20% for groups, 20% for 1/8, 20% for 1/4, 20% for 1/2 and 20% for final. Is is then distributed by the number of winners, and since they are less and less as the stages evolve, the winner gets more and more. So this could "easely" be tweaked for different percentages.
Other zones is similar but its 25% because its missing one stage (1/8).