There was excitement in the African football world when CAF announced it had increased the prize money for AFCON 2023. It set the prize pool at $14.8m with the winner bagging a whopping amount of $7m, the runners up $4m, losing semifinalists $2.5m and losing quarter finalists $1.3m. This amount saw a 40% rise from the previous finals with the AFCON 2019 winner getting $5m.
Even though the Super Eagles didn’t take home the trophy, they reached the final of AFCON 2023, this got them the $4m prize money which was paid last month to NFF by CAF.
The problem now is there was no previous agreement as to how the prize money will be shared. The players are demanding 30% of this prize money, which comes down to $1.2 Million, while the NFF are pleading with them to take 25%, which is a Million Dollars.
“There is no agreement yet between the players and the NFF on how the prize money should be shared,the mistake was that there was no agreement about this before the tournament, but at the 2019 AFCON in Egypt, where the team finished third, the boys got 30% of the prize money CAF paid to the NFF.” A top official informed SCORENigeria.
It was also reported that some of the players openly accused Captain Ahmed Musa of not doing enough to ensure they are paid what they are entitled to.