Categories: Entertainment

Cote D’Ivoire President Rewards Players with Houses After AFCON Win

After not being able to hold the Africa Cup of Nations trophy in 23 years, the Cote D’Ivoire stunned their fans with a win against Ghana on Sunday. Now, their president, Alassane Ouattara, has announced that he will award all 23 members of Les Elephants with houses in addition to their cash rewards.

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According to the Ivorian government, President Ouattara will give a house worth $52,000 to each football player in addition to a cash reward of equal value.

But the football players aren’t the only ones being rewarded for the AFCON win; members of the team’s technical staff and the Ivorian Football Federation are also receiving six-figure rewards.

In all, Sunday’s big win — which saw the Ivorians garner nine penalty kicks to the Black Stars eight — is costing the government roughly $3 million in rewards.

And Ghana wasn’t left empty handed.

The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), the team’s sponsor, will reportedly give the Black Stars $25,000 each. The reward has caused controversy with some football fans who say that the money is being misspent and should instead be put toward the country’s power problems.

Ghana Sports Minister Mahama Ayariga defended the expenditure, saying, “For those who think that GNPC rewarding the boys with US$ 25,000 is too generous, I wish they were in the stadium when the whole of Malabo [Equatorial Guinea] was throwing stones and bottles [over Ghana’s win] and the armed forces and police were deployed to come and save our lives.

“I wish they were in the stadium and then they will know whether US$ 25,000 is worth that kind of experience. I don’t even think it is enough.”

Either way, the win for the Ivorians has reportedly given the country an added boost, with the President saying that the country’s win has unified Cote D’Ivoire.

Watch Cote D’Ivoire’s AFCON win against Ghana here:

Abena Agyeman-Fisher

Abena Agyeman-Fisher is the Editor-in-Chief of Face2Face Africa. Most recently, she worked for Interactive One as the Senior Editor of NewsOne, she worked for AOL as the News Programming Manager of Black Voices, which later became HuffPo Black Voices, and for the New York Times Company as an Associate Health Editor. Abena, a Spelman College graduate, has been published in Al Jazeera, the Daily Beast, New Jersey’s The Star-Ledger, the Grio, BlackVoices, West Orange Patch, About.com, the Source, Vibe, Vibe Vixen, Jane, and Upscale Magazines. She has interviewed top celebrities, icons, and politicians, such as First Lady Michelle Obama, Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett, Civil Rights activist and diplomat Andrew Young, comedian Bill Cosby, Grammy Award-winning singer Jill Scott, actress and singer Queen Latifah, Olympic Gold winner Cullen Jones, international supermodel Alek Wek, and five-division world champion boxer Floyd Mayweather. Most recently, she served as the First Lady’s press reporter during President Barack Obama’s U.S.-Africa Summit, Young African Leaders Institute event, and the 2013 presidential trip to Senegal, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Tanzania. Abena is also a 2015 International Women's Media Foundation Africa Great Lakes Fellow, where she reported on women candidates and Chinese sweatshops in Tanzania for CNN and Refinery29.