Africa’s football governing body, CAF, has notified clubs that participated in the maiden edition of its Women’s Champions League (WCL) there is no prize money.
Correspondences between the Finance Department and some clubs revealed that the Executive Committee of the association did not budget for the WCL competition last year, Joy Sports can reports.
“There was no approved prize money grid for the 2021 WCL communicated to the competing teams,” a portion of an email from the Finance Director, Richard Torsu, in late September to clubs said.
The communique which had General Secretary, Veron Mosengo-Omba, Director of Competitions, and Samson Adamu in copy apologised to the clubs for a mix-up in communication.
“Sincere apologies if there has been a mix-up in communication thereby raising hopes and expectations,” Mr Torsu added.
In March 2022, a member of the Finance Department of CAF, Ali Rafa, sent an email to clubs to provide their bank account details.
The letter which was sent at 11:06 am on March 22, said: “Please provide us with your bank details to enable us to proceed with WCL prize money.”
Mr Rafa added documents, in French and English, and advised the clubs to follow “the guidelines closely and provide us with all the requested information in the same format requested.”
On March 24, the clubs were advised to add “official bank certificates reflecting full details (bank letterhead signed and stamped reflecting the requested information).”
Following the communication from CAF, some of the clubs followed up in June for an update, and they were told “the payment is currently under the process of internal approval, once finalised, we will share the SWIFT copy with you once ready.”
The SWIFT copy was never shared until late September when the Finance Director notified the clubs there is no money for them.
The Women’s Champions League was won by South Africa’s Sundowns with Ghana’s Hasaacas Ladies finishing second.
Other participating teams were Wadi Degla of Egypt, Mali’a AS Mandé, and Equatorial Guinea’s Malabo Kings. Morocco’s AS FAR, River Angels of Nigeria, and Vihiga Queens FC of Kenya.
It is reported that some of the clubs spent over $200,000 to participate in the tournament and are disappointed about the turn of events.
