We’re at the business end of the 2018-19 Champions League campaign and four teams remain in with a chance of winning club football’s most lucrative competition.

Tottenham, Ajax, Liverpool and Barcelona are all hoping to book their spots in next month’s final in Madrid, with the semi-final second-legs taking place next week.

As well as glory and prestige, the club that wins the tournament is also guaranteed a huge cash windfall.

Clubs currently earn €2.7 million per win and €900,000 per draw in the group stages, according to UEFA's website. They then earn a whopping €9.5m if they advance to the Round of 16.

It then jumps to €10.5m if they reach the quarter-finals, €12m for the semi-finals, and €15m for the final.

The winning club then pockets an additional €4 million for winning the final, plus €3.5m for qualifying for the UEFA Super Cup.

But what happens about the players?

Well, Peter Crouch - the former Liverpool and Tottenham striker who, at the age of 38, is now winding down his career with Burnley - has lifted the lid on player bonuses in the Champions League on the latest episode of his podcast.

Crouch admits that Champions League bonuses are much bigger than in any other competition - including the Premier League - and went into detail about the way it all works.

“In all honesty, bonuses don’t affect a player unless you’re in the Champions League,” he said.

“When I was at Liverpool, I remember Jay Spearing, Darren Potter, Neil Mellor, Stephen Warnock was coming through… those young lads, when they got on the bench… the smile on their faces!

“These are young lads on not much, in football terms.

“You can probably go back over it. If you see some of the reactions of the players on the bench when the team has won in the Champions League, some of the celebrations are like they’ve won it.”

Asked if players are incentivised as they progress through the tournament, Crouch continued: “It pretty much doubles each time.

“If you win a game in the group stages, it will be X - like double X!

“Then you get through to the quarters: doubled, the semis: doubled, final: doubled.”

Basically, players earn a fortune if they go all the way.

And a squad player like Jay Spearing would earn just as much in bonuses as somebody like influential captain Steven Gerrard. It’s all distributed evenly.

Crouch was then asked if there’s ever been a time when he’s thought less about the result and more about the bonus.

“Not for one second,” the veteran striker insisted. “If they gave me like a £1 and then £2 - not for one second, that has never been an incentive for me at all.

“It’s weird because you get paid very well for it but you’d probably do it for free because it’s the best thing in the world to do anyway.

“But you get there and go ‘right, someone’s earning a fortune off of this’.

“So usually the captain will go in and say ‘you’re earning this, we’ve got us there - we think we should get this’ and negotiate bonuses.

“We usually give the captain loads of grief and say ‘that’s rubbish - go and ask for more!’.”

Asked if he would ever say that to Gerrard, Crouch replied: “Well, I probably wouldn’t say that to Stevie! I was thinking more Ryan Shawcross!”