WeeklySA_AdminAFCON2023: CAF PRES MOTSEPE ELATED over COTE D’IVOIRE BUT NO CONFIRMATION OF NEXT TOURNEY IN 2025
By Ali Mphaki
CAF president, Patrice Motsepe, has said about two billion people are watching the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Côte d’Ivoire.
Motsepe disclosed this at a press conference on Friday in Abidjan at a meeting with CAF Member Associations’ Presidents ahead of the AFCON final on Sunday.
According to the CAF boss it is an achievement that Africans should be proud of.
The tournament kicked off with confirmation that the prize money had been increased by a whopping 40 percent from the previous edition in Cameroon.
With the spectacle producing drama, shocks and scintillating football, Motsepe added the main actors – players and coaches – deserved the financial rewards.
“Many of the players don’t earn the same money. I have learnt over the last 20 years if you increase the money that goes into the pockets of the players and tell them, we have increased the prize money and with a prize money some of that money is gonna go into the pockets of the players who need it. Some of course are playing at the highest level and for them, it’s also the pride and the commitment of having the AFCON CAF in their nations and winning it for their countries,” Motsepe said.
“Pay them competitive salaries and competitive wages,” Motsepe added.
Motsepe says he was told by some of the leaders of the participating member associations at the continental showpiece they’d promised their teams a total share of the prize money.
The CAF president also praised the match officials.
“I mean the feedback I’m getting from some of the presidents who said ‘We took a huge significant portion of the prize money and told the national team – Guys if you win, this is your money’.
“It has inspired them immensely but also because the quality of our referees, the quality of our match commissioners, the quality of our linesman, the quality of our VAR has been world-class. I had a meeting with all of the referees and I told them, we are very proud of them, all of them.”
The AFCON is at the final stage this weekend, and the eventual winners who will be crowned on February 11 at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium in Abidjan will pocket a sizeable R130-million.
Motsepe, however, on Friday refused to confirm the dates of the next Africa Cup of Nations, due to take place in 2025. “The focus for all of us now is Ivory Coast,” he said.
The Afcon normally takes place every two years, but the current edition was delayed by six months due to fears over a clash with the rainy season in West Africa.
However, staging the next edition in Morocco next year presents various problems. Holding it in January and February leaves little time to stage a qualifying competition, with FIFA-sanctioned dates in June already given over to qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup. The Moroccan Football Federation this week issued a statement in which it claimed the tournament would take place in “summer 2025”.
However, playing it in June and July would mean a clash with FIFA’s expanded Club World Cup which is due to take place in North America. Yet it may be impossible to delay until 2026, given that the first 48-team World Cup will be play“There are a lot of competing events at the same time but we are confident that…it is indeed going to be around that time,” Motsepe said when asked if the competition would go ahead in 2025 as planned. “We have to accommodate other competing competitions (but) the AFCON next year is going to be an immense success and we will make further announcements in due course.”
Bafana Bafana will receive R46.9 million despite losing to Nigeria, and they will face the Democratic Republic of Congo for third place in the Africa Cup of Nations
The winners of the tournament will get R131 million, the runners-up R75 million, and both semi-finalists, including Bafana Bafana, will get R46.9 million each.
