African Debate: Improved CAF Champions League Cash Prize Still Not Good Enough

The CAF Champions League is one of the longest running continental club competitions in world football. It first started out as the African Champions Cup in 1964, before it was redesigned to its current format in 1997.

In between this period, there were hardly sponsors for the tournament and no prize money was paid to the clubs, who were mainly motivated by prestige and the quest for sporting glory to do well.

However, since the continent's flagship club competition took on its present format where the eight top teams qualifying for the money-spinning group phase then go onto a knockout semi-final and a final played over two legs, the overall winners are guaranteed a prize money of a million US dollars.

Last week, the CAF Executive committee put this amount up by 50%  beginning from next year's edition of the annual tournament. This was possible because of the appointment of new title sponsors for the competition.

CAF have made giant strides since Issa Hayatou took over the leadership of the organisation in 1988, but it must be stressed that despite the many gains of CAF in all these years, the organisation have fallen far short in the marketing of their commercial rights.

Like other football confederations, CAF rely on an exclusive marketing agent to sell their commercial properties. But we are also aware that there have been allegations of compromises on the part of the leadership CAF in respect of this partnership.

One would have expected that CAF would be transparent about their sponsorship earnings, making public all the details of how much a sponsor has committed to their various competitions and events. But that has not been the case and this has fuelled more speculation that a lot of money meant for football in Africa is being paid under the table into private pockets.

Better marketing would mean more money for CAF and more money for the clubs and the players.

Officials are often quick to argue that CAF are lagging far behind the likes of Asia Football Federation (AFC) and the European Football Union (UEFA) because the African economy cannot compare with that of those continents.

Yet, the difference between these continents as regards cash prizes is like darkness and light, there is simply no basis for comparison.

UEFA pay each team that qualify for their Champions League three million Euros and another 2.4 million Euros for reaching the group phase. A group stage win is worth €600,000 and a draw is worth €300,000.

In addition, UEFA pay each quarterfinalist €2.5 million, €3 million for each semi-finalist, €4 million for the runners-up and €7 million for the winners.

In Asia, the total budget for this year's Champions League is $20 million. Of that, 70 per cent is dedicated to prize money and incentives, with the eventual winners taking home $1.5 million plus bonuses from earlier rounds. A victory in the group stages will be worth $40,000.

On face value, a million dollars is a small fortune, but when one computes the cost of travel across Africa for a club, as well as the ever-rising costs of running such a club, this cash prize is already overdrawn before a club has played its final group matches.

For example, the annual budget for an average club in Nigeria is around two million dollars. This is to cover their travel and boarding within the country, as well as the general running of the club - players' salaries and bonuses, hiring of match venues, taxes, medical expenses, indemnities for referees, among other expenditure.

South African clubs have been known to withdraw or show less enthusiasm for the competition, because one of their several local tournaments earn them far more than they would get featuring in the CAF Champions League.

Generally, most clubs have, therefore, in the past 12 years operated deficit budgets to compete in the Champions League and one would then have expected that their patience and perseverance would have been better rewarded by the competition organisers with a cash prize far in excess of the 1.5 million dollars thats next year's Champions League winners will receive.

Officials complain of the football talent drain from Africa, but if they cannot help to improve the working conditions on the continent through such measures like better remuneration for the clubs, African players will prefer to take up the slave contracts that are pushed at some of them in Europe and beyond.

Samm Audu, Goal.com