The
cash rain for the Super Eagles and the Nigeria Football Federation appears
unending as the world football ruling body FIFA has just made the
Confederations Cup more lucrative. No matter which way the Confederation Cup
title goes, Nigeria will return from the intercontinental football fiesta in
June with lots of cash.
FIFA
has increased the total prize money for the competition by 14 per cent compared
with the last edition held in South Africa in 2009, giving the winners the
opportunity to go home with over $4m besides carting home the trophy. The
runners-up, meanwhile, will earn $3.6m.
In
all a total prize pool of $20m will be shared among the eight participating
nations. The winners of the third-place match will go home with $3m, while the
fourth-placed team will have $2.5m.
Teams
eliminated during the group phase and finishing fifth, sixth, seventh and
eighth will each receive $1.7m.
At
the 2009 edition of the FIFA Confederations Cup, the total prize fund was
$17.6m, with champions Brazil picking up $3.75m along with the coveted trophy.
The
Super Eagles qualified to be part of the event after emerging as the African
champions at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa where they went
past Ivory Coast and Mali at the knock-out stages before beating Burkina Faso
1-0 in the final.
Nigeria
are the second least rated team at the Confederations Cup (30 in the FIFA
rankings) behind Tahiti who are 148th. But being African champions should count
for something when they play world champions, Spain, Uruguay and Tahiti in
Group B of the tournament. Experts say winning the African cup has improved
their position psychologically. Eagles’ opening game is against islanders
Tahiti in the competition billed for Brazil.
Group
A has hosts Brazil, Italy, Mexico and Japan.
The
Eagles are already guaranteed a smooth financial entrance into Brazil as the
Presidency has accepted to give the team a special financial grant for the
competition. The sum approved in principle is separate from the NFF’s budget
for 2013.
Even
though the country won the African cup after 19 years of waiting, the NFF
returned with debts having introduced huge match-win bonuses for the players
amongst other expenditures.
- See more at:
http://www.punchng.com/sports/confed-cup-fifa-dangles-4m-for-eagles/#sthash.1qP751ii.dpuf
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