Diego Simeone will have to renegotiate his contract with Atletico Madrid if they fail to qualify for the Champions League according to Spanish radio Cope.

The revelation suggests he will no longer be football’s best paid coach if they slip into the Europa League and that he could even part company with the club for free at the end of the season if no new agreement is reached.

Atletico remain favourites to make the cut but a run of one win in their last four league games has made for a more nervous finish to the season than they were anticipating.

There is a three point gap between themselves in fourth and fifth place Betis. If they lose to Real Madrid at the weekend and Betis win at home to Barcelona they will be on the same number of points with three games left.

They do have head-to-head advantage over them so would finish above them if they tie on points.

Simeone has been a source of massive income for Atletico Madrid since he took over a decade ago.

With two Champions League final appearances, two more semi-finals, two Europa League finals and two European Super Cups he has brought in well in excess of 300 million euros in prize-money.

The club were 23rd in UEFA’s ranking when he took over last season they moved up to fifth and all this has been used to justify Simeone grossing just under 40m euros.

Just for qualifying for the Champions League clubs earn around 15m euros. With just getting out of the group bringing in a further 9.6m.

Well-connected Atletico Madrid reporter Antonio Ruiz broke the story on Cope as well as confirming the club would not give Real Madrid a guard of honour on to the pitch this Saturday.

It’s a tradition – albeit one not always adhered to – that the Champions are given a guard of honour by their next opponents but Atletico look set to skip the protocol.