Despite Chelsea’s win over Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday night, they can no longer qualify for next season’s Champions League.The club’s hopes of Champions League qualification have been hanging by a thread for some time, and were largely bolstered by the hope that Aston Villa winning the Europa League and finishing fifth in the Premier League would see the sixth-placed team in the league qualify. However, Tuesday’s results put that out of reach for Chelsea.Their highest possible finish is seventh, which would see them qualify for the Europa League, but that relies on at least a draw against Sunderland and Brighton & Hove Albion losing by a number of goals at home against Manchester United. A win for Chelsea and defeat for Brighton would also do it.Chelsea, as it stands, are eighth, which would mean a place in the Conference League. However, they still need to avoid defeat against Sunderland and rely on a beneficial result when Brentford travel to Liverpool to be guaranteed that spot.Here, The Athletic explains what missing out on Champions League football — and possibly European competition altogether — means financially in the context of Chelsea’s settlement agreement with UEFA.What impact does missing out on the Champions League have on Chelsea’s finances?Champions League football carries far more financial weight than UEFA’s second- and third-tier competitions.The Athletic estimates that Chelsea’s Champions League campaign this season, which ended in the round of 16 with defeat by Paris Saint-Germain, generated around £80million in UEFA distributions — plus income from the matches they hosted at Stamford Bridge. By comparison, winning the Europa League in 2018-19 earned £40.8m in prize money, and their Conference League triumph in 2024-25 earned £18.3m.Chelsea have a good chance of securing European football of some kind, but should they qualify for the Europa or Conference League, they carry nowhere near the same financial heft.Any shot at glory should be welcomed but, in cash terms, the benefits of UEFA’s junior competitions to a club carrying Chelsea’s operational costs are marginal; in the Conference League, which often involves substantial travel and where home games pale in significance to Champions League fixtures, it’s debatable whether the club even turns a profit from participation.Chelsea’s Champions League campaign generated significant revenue (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)What is the settlement agreement and what happens if Chelsea breach it?There is particular focus on Chelsea’s finances because of the extra conditions imposed on them by a settlement agreement with UEFA.In July 2025, the club were fined for breaching UEFA’s football earnings rules (€20m) and squad cost rule (€11m). The squad cost rule breach was punished by a one-off fine. It is the football earnings breach that is being managed under a four-year settlement agreement, and that is a cause for concern going forward.