Because the 2024 version of the TotalEnergies Ladies’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) kicks off on July 5 in Morocco, the Confederation of African Soccer (CAF) has taken a definitive step towards redefining the worth of girls’s soccer on the continent.
In a transfer each symbolic and strategic, CAF has doubled the prize cash for the match’s eventual winner, from $500,000 to a landmark $1 million, and elevated the general prize pot by 45%.
It’s a headline-making determination, however extra importantly, it’s one that might have deep and lasting penalties, not only for the 12 groups competing this July, however for way more progress of the African Ladies’s Soccer ecosystem.
For Nigeria’s Tremendous Falcons, essentially the most embellished workforce in WAFCON historical past, with a historic 9 (9) titles, this announcement arrives as greater than an incentive, it’s a uncommon monetary present of religion in a workforce that has so typically been requested to ship success with little in return from its federation.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe wasn’t imprecise in his reasoning. He known as the prize cash improve a part of CAF’s ongoing dedication to growing ladies’s soccer in Africa and to creating it globally aggressive.
“CAF is constant with its dedication to the event and progress of Ladies’s Soccer in Africa.
“The 100% improve within the Prize Cash of the Winner of the TotalEnergies CAF WAFCON Morocco 2024 and the 45% whole improve within the Prize Cash of this Competitors ought to contribute to the rise within the salaries of Ladies Soccer gamers, coaches, and staff.
“The standard and customary of Ladies’s Soccer in Africa is constantly bettering and is world-class.
“We’re excited in regards to the substantial improve within the variety of followers, broadcasting viewers, and sponsors within the TotalEnergies CAF WAFCON Morocco 2024. This Competitors goes to be enormously profitable.”
The prize cash for the winner is a 100% improve, and the entire prize cash of the competitors elevated by 45%.
The successful workforce will now take residence $1 million, double what South Africa acquired after lifting the trophy in Morocco two years in the past. The runner-up will earn $500,000, whereas third-place finishers will declare $350,000.
Beneath is the total breakdown of the prize distribution
The overall prize cash for the 2024 WAFCON has been set at $3.475 million.
For the Tremendous Falcons, winners of 9 WAFCON titles, the elevated prize cash couldn’t be extra well timed. After a robust exhibiting on the 2023 Ladies’s World Cup, the place they reached the Spherical of 16 and pushed eventual finalists England to penalties, Nigeria’s gamers returned residence to the acquainted chaos of unpaid bonuses courting again to 2021 then, with FifPro intervening.
The nice facet of the 2023 World Cup was that FIFA instantly paid earnings to gamers to forestall nationwide federations from diverting the funds.
This time round, CAF’s intervention is clearer and bolder: with a $1 million prize for the winner and important monetary incentives even for groups that fall in need of the ultimate, the Tremendous Falcons can now push for a match the place the rewards match the trouble.
The Mission Is Clear. Go and Get It.
For the Tremendous Falcons, WAFCON 2024 isn’t simply one other match. It’s a mission laced with which means, fuelled by cash, and heavy with the burden of reminiscence. They’ve received it 9 instances, rewritten the file books, and carried the flag additional than anybody else. And nonetheless, by some means, this one feels totally different.
They name it Mission X—the chase for a tenth continental crown, a quantity that carries weight, legacy, and finality. And now, with $1 million on the road for whoever lifts the trophy in Morocco, there’s greater than glory at stake. There’s payback. There’s satisfaction.
CAF has accomplished its half. The stage is ready. And Nigeria’s most profitable nationwide workforce has by no means wanted permission to dominate, they simply want the fireplace. That is the time to show it once more.
So to the Tremendous Falcons, that is your mission. Ten titles. A million {dollars}. One continent watching.
Go and end it.
