Jordaan meets Bafana over Afcon bonuses
South African Football Association (Safa) president Danny Jordaan will meet Bafana Bafana players to thrash out the finer details of their contracts ahead of them competing at the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) which starts on Saturday, he told the Sunday Times yesterday.
Speaking from Stellenbosch, where Bafana have set up camp to prepare for the 34th edition of the African showpiece, Jordaan confirmed he was going to have a meeting with Hugo Broos’ squad to iron out contractual issues before they depart for Ivory Coast.
“I am going to meet the players today,” he said when asked if Safa had finalised the Bafana Afcon bonuses.
The last time a South African national team went to a major tournament, Banyana Banyana were embroiled in a nasty pay dispute with the association. The ugly standoff overshadowed their achievement of qualifying for the 2022 Fifa Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
It appears Safa wants to avoid a repeat of the debacle for which they were roundly criticised.
When Bafana last appeared at Afcon, in 2019, it was clear from the onset of the tournament in North Africa what players stood to gain. Each Bafana player received R520,000 after reaching the quarterfinals, where they were knocked out by Nigeria after booting out hosts Egypt 1-0 in the last 16.
In 2019 Stuart Baxter’s squad were in line to pocket R920,000 each if they win the tournament.
“Remember, it’s different this time around, and Safa may promise more to the players but the structure of their rewards should remain the same. The more Bafana progress in Ivory Coast, the more they’ll get in terms of their bonuses,” said a Safa source yesterday.
This week, the Confederation of African Football (Caf) announced it had increased the prize money by 40% compared with the previous tournament in Cameroon in 2021.
“The winner of the 2023 Afcon will receive $7m (R130m), runners-up $4m (R74m), semifinalists $2.5m (R46m) and each quarterfinalist $1,300,000 (R24m),” Caf said in a statement.
The issue of bonuses for players and staff has created disharmony in the past as Safa often struggles to meet their expectations.
The Sunday Times reported two weeks ago on Bafana support staff complaining about their unpaid compensation.
Bafana are in camp in Stellenbosch for five days before they play a training match against Lesotho on Tuesday and leave for Ivory Coast the following day.
They will open their Afcon account with a clash against Mali at the 20,000-seater Amadou Gon Coulibaly Stadium in Korhogo, where they’ll play all their first-round matches.
Bafana will train at Lycee Modern de Korhogo. Though Tunisia (third) and Mali (ninth) are rated higher than Bafana (12th) in Africa, Broos — who won the Afcon with Cameroon in 2017 — is confident his team will make it to the last 16.