SAFA President Dr Danny Jordaan has clarified the issues of bonuses for the Banyana Banyana team, and also what will happen with the prize money awarded by CAF.
The prize money of R8.4 million will be paid to SAFA, and many assumed it would be added to the R9.2 million in bonuses promised by SAFA, however that is not the case. There is also an award of R5.8 million that the government awarded to the team after the return, but that is a separate issue.
Speaking to Robert Marawa on Marawa Sports Worldwide, Jordaan explained that while Banyana are guaranteed a bonus of R400,000 from SAFA, the football association will receive the prize money from CAF, and that money will go into the budget for the bonuses, expenses and more.
“First of all, for the CAF tournament, it is the Federation that’s filling in the form and enters each team, and therefore, CAF will pay the money to the Federation,” Jordaan explained to Marawa.
“Now, even before that announcement was made as to what prize money will be awarded, we called a press conference, we had a meeting with the players and we asked them, one of the things that’s a problem on the continent, that when you have a good team going to a major competition, somewhere along the line, you’ll find in the dressing room, instead of focusing on the match, they discussing bonus. Let us sit down and agree what is it that you would be happy with?
“And we agreed 400,000, which will equate to 9.2 million, and that is a public announcement that we made, that is our commitment. Nothing else was on the table. So that is our commitment, 92 million and we will pay each player 400,000.
“When we came back there all sorts of offers, and we have nothing. So over the next few days, we will have to sit down because remember, there’s not just the players, there’s the technical staff and I had a meeting with them in Rabat on the very question to say but we can’t forget you. You can’t have only players on the field, and they are also adults, they have families, they also look forward to get a bonus for the work that they’ve done.
“So unfortunately, those are issues that we have to sit down and discuss with them. We only won on Saturday and we only arrive back today. So obviously, we did not discuss it but what we said, I said to them, I don’t want players to talk about anything else. You, one must bring that cup home and I gave them the examples of 1998 Nigeria at Sunday Oliseh, JJ Okocha, Daniel Amokachi, and the list is endless. We thought because they won the Olympics in 1996 that they would win. Or at least being the final in 1998. Second round, there is a debate on bonuses. Then you have Ghana, who made it to the quarterfinals in South Africa. We thought 2014 In Brazil, they will be in the finals. What happened? Discussing bonuses and the team, de-focussed.”
“No, the prize money is paid to SAFA. So SAFA would have to take a decision. That’s why what we said to the finance department. Look, put everybody in, what we guarantee the players the 400,000. Now you have to put every player, technical staff, coaches, everybody. You also have to take in all of the costs. There are bills to be paid. We are paying the medical costs of Thembi, for example. So put all those things, give us the budget, let us discuss.”
