Nations Cup Winners To Bag $1.5m As Prize Money

Winners of the Africa Cup of Nations will be taking home a mouthwatering $1.5m cash prize, Caf General Secretary Hicham El-Amrani has revealed.

The prize money forms part of a total $10m shared amongst teams that qualifies for the biennial show piece.

The Moroccan’s revelation settles an age-long debate over the financial incentive for playing in Africa’s most prestigious football competition – with several people suggestion there was absolutely no cash reward for winners of the competition.

“There is $10m allocated to teams (16) that qualify for the Nations Cup,” El-Amrani said during Supersport’s Soccer Africa show.

“Out of this 10m, $1.5m is reserved for the winning team as the prize money.”

Kalusha Bwalya who led Zambia’s delegation as their association’s President to win the last CAN earlier this year who was also on the panel confirmed this revelation made by El-Amrani.

“I took delivery of this cheque when we won the Nations Cup in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea,” he said.

It however remains to be seen whether the $1.5m prize money is enough to compensate for the cost involved in seriously preparing a side to win the title.

One Black Stars home game for example runs into over $200,000 in expenses including; camping fees, transportation, security, per diems and bonuses assuming the match is won.

This figure rises when it is an away game and sees a further rise when a qualified Nations Cup team camps and acclimatizes outside the shores of it’s country as well as arranging friendly games just to put the team in perfect shape for the competition which has no guarantee of success – thus making it a highly volatile business venture.

The next Nations Cup will be held in South Africa next January but will be preceded by the final round of qualifiers in September.

Source: Ghanasoccernet.com