Bafana take home R14m pay cheque

Bafana Bafana players in their Damat suits saying goodbye to Egypt.
Bafana Bafana players in their Damat suits saying goodbye to Egypt.
Image: TWITTER/Bafana Bafana

The South African Football Association (Safa) will receive a $1m (R14m) windfall from the Africa Cup of Nations, but it will all be virtually swallowed by the payment of bonuses to the players.

The quarter-finalists at this year's tournament go home with the hefty pay cheque, though it is well short of the prize for the winners which stands at $4.5m (R62m).

That would have ensured a good payday for Safa, but as it stands the prize money for reaching the quarter-finals will be finished by the time it has been distributed among the players who will each receive R520,000.

If the side had managed to squeeze into a semi-final stage of the tournament, they would have doubled the payday to $2m (R23m), showing just how costly moments such as goalkeeper Ronwen Williams' missed punch that led to Nigeria's winning goal can be.

Had the team been victorious in Egypt, they would have walked away with R920,000 per player, but still left Safa with about R40m to put into their coffers.

The Confederation of African Football increased the prize-money for this year's edition of the tournament, with the reward for reaching the quarter-finals two years ago being $800,000 (R11m).

The biggest increase has come with the winners' cheque, which has jumped from $1.5m (R21m) for Ivory Coast's 2015 victory to triple that for the winning team this year.

At the recent Fifa Women's World Cup held in France and won by the US last week, Safa paid the Banyana Banyana players R20,000 each after exiting in the first round of the tournament, but pocketed $750,000 (R10.5m) as the team bowed out in the first round.

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