The principle of advance payment applies in the Champions League.

Even before FC Bayern played the first group game of the new season on Wednesday evening, the German champions had earned more than 52 million euros.

That has nothing to do with the 2-0 win at Inter Milan, but with qualification for the current campaign in the premier class and the successes of the recent past.

Even before the first kick-off, the European Football Union generously distributes the income it generates through its premium product among club competitions.

Tobias Rabe

Responsible editor for Sport Online.

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Eintracht Frankfurt will also benefit from this for the first time.

As Europa League winners, the club secured a place in the Champions League.

Since the Hessians do not quite match the successes of Bavaria in Europe, there is not that much entry fee, but still 30 million euros.

And it can be even more.

Whoever wins a game in the Champions League receives 2.8 million euros, a draw brings 930,000 euros.

Qualifying for the knockout rounds also generates money.

So the participants can feel a bit like Scrooge McDuck in his money vault.

There was also a lot of talk about money in Frankfurt on Wednesday evening.

However, the item was not in the credit, but in the debit.

Eintracht, most agreed after the game, went a long way when they made their debut in the premier class with a 3-0 loss to Sporting Lisbon in their own stadium.

"We did well, but then learned a lot," said goalkeeper Kevin Trapp, who was one of the few Frankfurt players - at the time with Paris Saint-Germain - to play in the Champions League.

"The disappointment is great because the end result doesn't quite reflect the game."

Big booty for Sporting

The tank crackers from Portugal could hardly believe their luck.

While the gang of criminals in the Disney comics usually gets nothing, they not only took the bonus on the first day of the preliminary round, but also three points and are ahead of Tottenham Hotspur in the table;

the English defeated Olympique Marseille 2-0.

In Frankfurt, Eintracht had the chances, Sporting the earnings.

Marcus Edwards (65th minute), Francisco Trincão (67th) and Nuno Santos (82nd) ​​scored for Lisbon, who are playing in the Champions League for the tenth time.

The Portuguese made it through the group stage only twice.

In 2009 they failed with a crash at Bayern Munich (0:5 and 1:7), last season at Manchester City (0:5 and 0:0).

At that time they had also prevailed against Borussia Dortmund in the preliminary round.

So Sporting already has experience on the terrain of the premier class.

Even if Ruben Amorim's team is weak in the league, his chosen ones know how the ball rolls in the premier class.

When Eintracht wasn't careful, Sporting made three fat loots in his late-night raids.

Eintracht got the first chance on a silver platter.

After a terrible mistake by Sporting, Randal Kolo Muani ran lonely towards the goalkeeper in the second minute, but Antonio Adán saved the Eintracht striker's shot with his foot.

"We played a great first half and we really need to take the lead.

We lacked efficiency in front of goal,” said coach Oliver Glasner.

Above all, there was a lack of precision on the offensive.

Sporting steered the game outwards, but the crosses found no takers.

Sporting had that, a team without a big name but with quality – and a tactical concept that made it more difficult for Eintracht than last Saturday in the 4-0 win over Leipzig in the Bundesliga.

The Portuguese traditionally played ball-safe and repeatedly lured Eintracht into spaces they loved to strike.

That worked, even if their own goal was a long time coming.

Glasner corrected his players from the outside to avoid falling into the traps of the Sporting Clube de Portugal.

In the end it didn't work anymore.

And the damage was immense.

In the middle of the second half, the game took an unwelcome and unstoppable turn for Eintracht.

The first was quickly followed by the second.

"After the 0:1 we took a big risk too quickly.

Then we were countered very hard, you could see the quality of Sporting,” said Glasner.

However, the coach did not want to derive an accusation from this, just like sporting director Markus Krösche: “It is a character trait that we want to equalize immediately.

I see that rather positively.

But in the Champions League it will be punished coldly.”

After the Champions League is before the Bundesliga.

The Frankfurters have now arrived in the breathless hunt until mid-November, when the program for a half-year in three months has to be pushed through in a shorter time because of the Winter World Cup in Qatar.

VfL Wolfsburg comes on Saturday (3.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky), on Tuesday (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Champions League and on DAZN) it continues in the premier class at Olympique Marseille.

"We will learn," Glasner is certain.

It will already be seen in France whether the penny has dropped for the Frankfurt apprentices.