Huge Financial Windfall Awaits Warriors

Warriors players who will make the squad for the delayed 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals scheduled for next year are set for a financial windfall after CAF president Patrice Motsepe revealed that they were organising money that will be set aside for participating players.

Speaking to delegates at the 2021 AFCON draw in Cameroon on Tuesday night, Motsepe said his organisation was planning to increase the tournament’s prize money as well as putting aside a fund towards player bonuses. Said Motsepe:

We want to increase the prize money and we are in discussion with sponsors because we have to show the world that African football is as good and is among the best in the world.

On top of the prize money, we want to put aside some money that will go to the players so that we don’t experience the problems that we have had in the past . . . where players are demotivated when they qualify because they don’t know how much they will make by way of bonuses.

Player bonuses have been a thorny issue at previous AFCON tournaments, with Zimbabwe threatening to abandon their 2019 final group match against the Democratic Republic of Congo in Egypt over a bonus row with the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA).

Next year’s hosts of the tournament also delayed their trip to Egypt in 2019 for the tournament after staging a sit-in over bonus disagreements.

Two years earlier, DR Congo had also threatened to boycott their match against Morocco over reduced bonuses.

More: NewsDay