Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has said CHAN Eagles did not get a staggering sum of $700,000 as prize money at the just concluded biennial championship in Morocco.
NFF President Amaju Pinnick, a member of both the CAF Executive Committee and the CAF Emergency Committee, told The Nation that CHAN Eagles received $400,000 for finishing as runner up with explanation that;
“CAF has just officially released the cash entitlements of all teams that participated in the just concluded biennial championship with second –placed Nigeria to earn the sum of $400,000 and not $750,000 as widely touted.”
He said, “the host and champions Morocco will pocket the sum of $750,000 and not $1.25Million as also earlier reported.
“The silver medalists and semi finalists Sudan (eventual bronze medalists) and Libya to also earn reduced sum of $250,000 each.
“The four teams that crashed out at the quarter final stage, viz Namibia, Zambia, Angola and Congo will each be paid $175,000, while the third placed teams in each of the four preliminary groups will get $125,000 each.
“The fourth –placed teams in each of the four groups will smile to the bank with $100.”
Succinct to know that CAF has increased the prize money for its competitions with effect from 2017 after it sealed a sponsorship deal with TOTAL; a copy of which can be obtained on CAF website, but no explanations have not been made it has to revert to the old cash entitlement for the participating teams.
Meanwhile, Pinnick on Wednesday told www.nff.com that CAF wanted all participating teams to earn something for their efforts.
He also confirmed that CHAN Eagles will be paid the CAF largess in due course.
He said, “CAF has spread the monies in such a way that each of the 16 participating teams at the finals would benefit. No team has received its share yet, but once the finance and audit people conclude their work in a number of weeks, the teams would be paid,”
This means Super Eagles’ players and officials, who have been promised 30 per cent of the prize money by the Nigeria Football Federation, will now be sharing far less than the N90Million originally reported.