Courtesy: The Botswana Gazette


CAF improves Champions League cash prize

Tuesday, 15 September 2009

GU stands to benefit

beMobile Premier League champions Gaborone United (GU) might be contesting in the African Champions League at an opportune time as the purse money has been increased by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
CAF announced last Friday they have improved cash prizes for the continent’s most prestigious club competition. The improvement will see the winners of next year’s trophy rewarded with US $ 1.500 000 or P7million, an increase of 50 per cent.
GU should work hard to ensure that they win their last 16 fixtures to qualify for the group stage where teams of four will compete for the top two spots. Just finishing last in the group stages, that is finishing fourth, will see the Botswana champions pocketing US 400 000, or P2.4 million. A third place finish in the group stage will earn GU US$ 500 000 or P3 million. Should the Be Mobile champions perform wonders and at least reach the semifinals, that will see them getting a whopping P4.2 million or US$700 000.
According to the CAF website, the two group winners and the two runners-up shall qualify for the semi-finals, where the winner of Group A shall meet the runner-up of Group B and the winner of Group B will meet Group A runners-up.
The new cash incentives were announced on Friday after the CAF executive committee met on September 10-11 in Cairo, Egypt. At the same meeting the Inter Club Committee of CAF approved the new proposals for the remuneration of teams participating in the Orange Champions League 2009.
In a related development, the draws of the African women championship to be held in South Africa in 2010 as well as the U-20 World Championship in Germany were made. Twenty-four countries will take part in the preliminary rounds of the African female championships whose final will be played in South Africa in October.

The CAF committee for the organisation of beach soccer and Futsal also adopted the dates for the holding of next year’s championships. According to the calendar, December 10-24 period has been reserved for the African Futsal Championships in Burkina Faso. Fourteen teams are expected to participate in the competition.

Concerning beach soccer, Nigeria and Ivory Coast shall represent Africa at the World Championships to be held from November 16 to 22, 2009 in Dubaï.
Meanwhile, at the same meeting the CAF Sports Medicine Committee reported that anti-doping controls were conducted during the 2009 African Nations Championships. The committee said all of the 68 samples were analyzed and the results declared negative. The executive committee commended the initiative of the commission for putting in place a system whereby any player taking part in any continental competition is to have a medical file.
The Committee in charge of organizing the African Nations Championships – CHAN 2011 - also went on with the draws of the preliminary rounds of the second edition. The period between January 21 and February 10, was reserved for the finals of the second edition to be held in the Sudan. (Sila Press Agency)








Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com