E50 000 RAISE FOR CHAMPS

MBABANE – The champions’ prize money will certainly go up in each of the Ingwenyama Cup editions. After the first three years of the Sincephetelo Motor Vehicle Accidents Fund (SMVAF)-sponsored soccer knockout tournament, a renewed contract with the country’s football authorities for three more years, starting with last year’s edition, saw the package reach E12m. This amount is to be split over a three-year period, this being the second year and fifth edition of the tournament which begins tomorrow.

Young Buffaloes won it last year and pocketed E1.3 million. It has been established through impeccable sources that as had been initially proposed last year; how the package will increase over each edition, the champions of this edition are set to take home E1 350 000. This reflects a E50 000 increase from last year’s E1.3m champions prize.

In the sixth edition of the tournament, the champions are set to pocket E1.4 million, according to the prize breakdown proposal spreading over the three-year period. Runners-up will, according to the proposal, receive the same amount as last year with an increase expected in last edition whereby the prize is set to go up to E530 000 if the proposal is followed as is. Mbabane Highlanders were the runners-up last year after losing 1-4 to Young Buffaloes, who are both in the grand opening this Sunday afternoon.

The increase also applies for semi-finalists in the last edition while quarter-finalists have no changes. Also worth noting is that the proposed prize breakdown will have no Best Coach Award throughout and this will mean six editions of the tournament without this gong. Furthermore, the Best Editor Award was scrapped last year while the Best Reporter gong remains throughout as well. Individual prizes for players and officials remain unchanged until last edition of this package.

Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) Chairman Peter ‘Touch’ Magagula referred all questions to the tournament’s Management Committee (MC) Chairman Johannes ‘Ace’ Siboza or MC Secretary in PLE Chief Operations Officer (COO) Pat Vilakati.

“What I know is we did the proposal last year and we are certain that prizes have gone up especially for the champions and runners-up but find out from Siboza or Pat,” he said.

Vilakati was contacted.
“Currently, we are awaiting confirmation of that prize breakdown from the official who chaired the meeting and had the proposal approved in the chairman’s presence. We sent the rules to the EFA with draft prizes so I can’t confirm what the prizes will be at the moment,” he responded but affirmed he and MC Chairman Siboza were aware that it was done but needed to lay their hands on that document or get assistance from the said official.

Meanwhile, this is according to a prize breakdown proposed by the tournament’s tripartite MC being the Eswatini Football Association (EFA), PLE and sponsors SMVAF. Last year’s edition saw a total of E3 905 000 while this one is set to be worth E3 992 500 and E4 105 000 for the 2020/21 season.

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