COSAFA says it has received numerous inquiries about prize money for players and teams who competed in the recently concluded COSAFA Women’s Championship in Gauteng.
The association has revealed that “There will be prize money of R20,000 for the individual award winners,” but nothing for teams.
Malawi’s forward Temwa Chawinga, who won both the Player of the Tournament award and the Golden Boot as top scorer, and Golden Glove winner Cynthia Shongwe from Zimbabwe are the only players who will receive prize money.
“However, as has been the case in all previous years, bar one exceptional case where a sponsor came on board to carry the cost, there will be no prize money for the teams,” announced Cosafa.
“It is a global reality that women’s football does not command the same commercial funding as the men’s game, and while COSAFA is working extremely hard to change this in our region, we are not there yet.”
‘Hosting the tournament is costly’- Cosafa
Cosafa has also said they incur huge costs in hosting the tournament.
“The costs of hosting an event such as the COSAFA Women’s Championship, which draws teams from 11 countries in addition to the host, are extraordinary in terms of air travel, accommodation, and other key logistics.
“These costs remain the same as for our men’s events, but with lower revenue for our women’s tournament, there is simply no space in our budget framework for prize money.
“We hope that in the future we will have more commercial partners to assist in this regard and as an organisation, COSAFA is working extremely hard to turn this into a reality,” concluded Cosafa in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Malawi Football Association announced on Monday night that their women’s national team will receive “K1 million Malawian as a token of appreciation for winning the Cosafa women’s Championship Cup.”
It also disclosed that “this is on top of the K1 million game bonus (K200,000.00 per game for five games) and USD 1,500 external bonus.”
