Zambia last night (12th of February 2012) won the African Nations Cup for the first time. Remarkably they won it in the country where they lost 18 players in an air crash some 19 years ago. The match won after 120 minutes of intense football had everything in it except for goals in regulation time as well as at extra time. But in the end Zambia did nick it and won the trophy. But aside from National pride and perhaps the cup what actually is the prize money?
Reports indicate the prize money for winning the African Nations Cup is a paltry $2m or (N320m). To put this into better perspective the prize money for the Uefa Champions league is about EUR9m or $11.8m. That is excluding appearance bonuses and TV Rights which can add up to another EUR16.5m. In fact Barcelona who won the tournament got EUR16.5m for getting to the final, EUR 9m for winning and another EUR 51m in TV rights. At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa the winner Spain got $30m in Prize money alone while in the 2011 Copa America the winner Uruguay got a reported $7m. Yaya Toure earns about 250k pounds a week which adds up to 13m pounds or $20.4m a year as well. So Yaya even earns more than the winning team of the African Cup of Nations. Ghana was also thought to have spent $5.6m in national team preparations, bonuses and other expenses.
So what do you think, is the Nations Cup worth playing for just $2m??
