National Sports

K20m for Cosafa Cup winners

 

The Flames are on the threshold of walking away with R500 000 (about K20 million) if they can defy the odds to win the 2015 edition of the Cosafa Cup which rolls into life this weekend in South Africa.

Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) announced the prize-money on Tuesday, which will also see the runners-up claim R250 000 (about K10 million), while R125 000 (about K5 million) will go to the third-placed team.

Flames in Action against Zambia
Flames in Action against Zambia

“The other losing semifinalist will take home R100 000 (about K4 million) while the winner of the Plate competition will receive R75 000 (about K3 million),” Cosafa secretary general Sue Destombes was quoted as saying by kickoff.com.

“Aside from the team prizes, there are also three individual awards for outstanding players at the tournament,” she adds.

The Most Valuable Player, Golden Boot winner and goalkeeper of the tournament will each receive R20 000 (about K800 000).

“It takes the total pot of prizes over the R1.1million (about K40.4 million) and that means there is plenty of incentive for teams and players alike,” Destombes said.

The Flames, who will set about their campaign against Mozambique’s Mambas in the quarter-finals on May 24, have never won the regional showpiece since its inception in 1997, but have been in the finals twice in 2002 and 2003 respectively.

The Cosafa Cup 2015 will be played at two venues in South Africa’s North West Province – Olympia Park in Rustenburg and the Moruleng Stadium.

The competition sees 14 teams enter this year, including guest nations Ghana, who finished as runners-up at the 2015 African Nations Cup in Equatorial Guinea, and Tanzania.

Group A contains Namibia, Mauritius, Seychelles and Zimbabwe while Group B features Lesotho, Madagascar, Swaziland and Tanzania.

The top team in each pool advances to the quarter-finals, with Ghana set to meet the winner of Group B and defending champions Zambia awaiting the top side in Group A.

The other two quarter-final sees hosts South Africa clashing with Botswana.

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