February 28, 2022

Liverpool beat Chelsea on Sunday in a thrilling Carabao Cup final at Wembley via penalty after both teams played 120 minutes of sensible football and both teams scoring 10 penalties each before Chelsea shot-stopper Kepa Arrizabalaga fluffed his kick.

But what many do not know is that for all their efforts and the exhaustion all through the knock out stages, the Cup is not worth the kick and the knocks after all.

The total pot for the entire tournament stands at just £200,000 – but that is only shared out to those four teams who make it to the semi-finals down to the eventual winners.

Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, who both exited the competition at the semi-final stages, have each received £25,000 each as their share of the £200,000.

Chelsea, the runners-up at Wembley, pocketed £50,000 while winners Liverpool walked away with £100,000.

This is far below the weekly wage of Virgil van Dijk, the leading earner at Liverpool on a wage of £220,000 per week,

However, money received for winning the Carabao Cup does not include fees from ticket sales and television deals that has built up throughout the season’s tournament.

The Carabao Cup prize money is in stark contrast to the FA Cup which offers prize money that increases round by round, with this season’s winners guaranteed a minimum of £3.4m in prize money.

Carabao is an energy drink product launched in Thailand in 2002 but has since gone global.