AHEAD of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), the Confédération of African Football (CAF) on Thursday, January 4, announced a 40 per cent rise in the prize money for the Africa Cup of Nations winners.

The winners will receive $7 million.

The new prize money records a 40 per cent increase over the $5 million awarded to winners in the 2021 tournament held in Cameroon and won by Senegal.

Other promises by CAF for the upcoming competition include the runner-up getting $4m, an increase from $2.75m in the previous edition while each of the two semi-finalists will pocket $2.5m- an increase from $2.2m.

But there was a 27.7 per cent decrease in the prize money for each of the four quarter-finalists.

They will go home with $1.3m compared to the $1.8m given at the last tournament.

The CAF’s financial statement for 2023 will be published in June 2024, but checks by The ICIR show that the CAF’s total income stood at $125,203 million after the year 2022 statement was published. It had $103,602 million in 2021.

The leap in the body’s income could be responsible for the rise in the 2023 AFCON prize money.

The CAF president, Patrice Motsepe, said the organisation had made significant progress over the past two years

“CAF has made significant progress over the past two years in increasing the prize money of the AFCON and all its other major competitions. 

“We have increased the prize money of the AFCON Winner to USD 7,00,000 which is a 40 per cent increase from the previous AFCON prize money. I am confident that a portion of the prize money will contribute to developing football and also benefit all the football stakeholders, as well as assist our member associations with their administrations,” he said.

The AFCON 2023 will kick off on Wednesday, January 10, in Cote d’Ivoire.