The cost of failure

This week is a big one for football clubs like Juventus, Inter Milan and Bayern Munich, as the final group phase game of the UEFA Champions League (UCL) takes place. Liverpool have already seen their chances in the season's competition disappear following last week's failure to qualify for the knockout phase of the UCL. How damaging is it for Europe's top teams when they fail to qualify for the later stages of the UCL? Is it an irretrievable blow in financial and commercial terms, or simply a short-term problem that can be rectified by a stronger showing in the following season's competition? What is the true extent of the revenue foregone by not qualifying for the knockout phase? Can any shortfall in revenue be made up by participating in the UEFA Europa League, especially if a club has a successful run to the Final of this competition? Having failed to qualify for the knockout phase, how does this impact on clubs like Juve, Inter, Bayern and Liverpool? How seriously would it affect their business models? Just how important is the UCL as a constituent part of the business models at Europe's leading clubs? Indeed, if one of Europe's leading clubs failed to qualify for the UCL two, three, or four seasons in succession, just how much pressure would this put on a business to change the commercial and managerial model it might have in place?