Sundowns set for big payday in Champions League

Mamelodi Sundowns will rake in big bucks if they manage to defend their CAF Women’s Champions League title at the tournament set to kick off in Morocco on Saturday, November 9.

Sundowns are bidding to defend their title, and make it three in four years, at the eight-team tournament set to take place in Casablanca and El Jadida this weekend and there is extra motivation.

This is after CAF increased the prize money by 52 per cent with each of the eight participating teams set to receive $150,000 (R2,622,765) with the amount increasing as they progress.

How much are participating teams set to earn?

Teams that finish third in the group will take home $200,000 (R3,497,020) each, $300,000 (R5,245,530) going to the fourth-placed team at the tournament, third place attracting $350,000 (R6,119,785), second place $400,000 (R6,994,040) while the winners will bank $600,000 (R10,491,060).

“CAF is committed to developing and growing Women’s Football in Africa and the objective of president [Patrice] Motsepe is to invest in Youth Academies for boys and girls and to continue increasing the prize monies of all CAF Competitions to make them globally competitive and attractive,” CAF said through a statement.

The Women’s Champions League was started in 2021 by CAF boss Motsepe with teams qualifying through their zones and the 2024 edition will stick to the eight-team format.

South Africa is represented by champions Sundowns and the University of Western Cape (UWC), who are among the five debutants at this year’s edition.

South Africa has two teams at 2024 edition

The Brazilians are in Group B alongside FC Masar (Egypt), Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (Ethiopia), Edo Queens (Nigeria) while UWC are in Group A, which also has AS FAR (Morocco), DR Congo’s TP Mazembe and Aigles de la Medina from Senegal.

“It’s something that we have been longing for for years. I joined in 2019 and, as a club, you want to see yourself playing at the high-end competition. I believe we have a good enough team to really push and hopefully get us out of the group stages,” UWC coach Thinasonke Mbuli told BBC Sport Africa.

The tournament’s group stages will take place from November 9-16, the semi-finals on 19 November, third place play-off on 22 November, giving way to the final the following day.

Sundowns won the inaugural edition in 2021 before Morocco’s AS FAR claimed the title in 2022 but the South African side reclaimed it in 2023.