Amid speculations that Malawi Women’s football team, the Scorchers, brought home over K460 million, the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) says it gives prize money to individual award winners only.
Social media was awash with rumours that Scorchers was awarded 400 thousand United States Dollar for emerging the champions of the 2023 Hollywoodbets COSAFA Women’s Championship which was held in South Africa.
However, through a press statement released on Tuesday 0ctober 17, 2023, COSAFA says traditionally it does not give prize money to the champions.
The council which said it received numerous enquiries around prize money for players and teams, says with lower revenue for women’s tournament, there is simply no space in its budget framework for prize money to the winning team.
“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.
“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,” reads part of the statement.
COSAFA further indicates that costs of hosting an event such as the COSAFA Women’s Championship, which draws teams from 11 countries in addition to the host, is extraordinary in terms of air travel, accommodation and other key logistics.
The council added that there will only be prize money of R20,000 (K1.2 million) for individual award winners which include Scorchers captain Temwa Chawinga, who won both Player of the Tournament and top goal scorer awards, and Cynthia Shongwe from Zimbabwe who won the Golden Glove award.
