With just over a month before the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) starts in the Ivory Coast, there is still no progress on bonuses for the Bafana Bafana players.
SAFA chief executive Lydia Monyepao said the bonus negotiations are taking longer than expected because they are failing to reach an agreement with the team.
“We have been engaging with the players since September in terms of the different bonuses and in terms of the international competitions before we got to the FIFA World Cup qualifiers. We tabled an offer and they came back with a counteroffer. We went back with another counteroffer and so we are still in negotiations. We are hoping to finish the discussions before the end of this year,” she said.
Explaining the bonus and how it works, Monyepao said it is more of a performance bonus than anything and the talks are taking longer because everyone is asking for more money, but the association cannot run itself to bankruptcy by offering amounts they cannot afford.
“We would like to have an agreement on the table before they get to camp so they can focus on the task at hand when they report for camp. We want them to be happy but at the same time, we can’t run ourselves to bankruptcy by offering amounts that we cannot afford.” said Monyepao.
The national team is expected to go into camp in Stellenbosch on the 4th of January to start their AFCON preparations.
