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THOUGH the Warriors of Zimbabwe hogged the limelight for all the wrong reasons, demanding to be paid upfront at the 2019 AFCON finals, it has emerged Bafana Bafana players are still to be paid for their exploits at the tournament.

The stand-off between the Warriors and ZIFA, over hefty payments, during the tour of duty in Egypt, dominated Zimbabwe’s participation at the showcase.

The Warriors repeatedly threatened not to fulfil their group matches, until certain payments were made, including US$5 000 appearance fees for every game.

Now, it has emerged Bafana Bafana, who did better than the Warriors at the AFCON finals by reaching the quarter-finals, after knocking out hosts Egypt in the Round of 16, are still waiting to be paid for their exploits.

SAFA have not yet received R11-million prize money they are supposed to get for reaching the quarter-finals of the tournament.

And, without that financial injection, one of the continent’s richest football associations have not been able to pay the players who represented Bafana Bafana in Egypt.

SAFA, though, are not the only ones affected.

The Nigeria Football Federation reportedly only received US$600 000 from CAF back in August, from the total sum of US$1.4-million they won for the third place at the continental tournament.

The NFF hosted the Warriors in a warm-up game and then flew the Zimbabwe delegation to Egypt for the AFCON finals on the same plane as the Super Eagles.

Winners Algeria, runners-up Senegal and fourth-placed Tunisia are also yet to receive their full winnings two months since the competition took place.

Acting SAFA chief executive, Russell Paul, says everything regarding the issue will be much clearer by the end of this week.

“We are just seeking their full clarity,” Paul told KickOff.com.

“Although they (CAF) have now started to give clarity, so I don’t want to comment on it until maybe Friday. We are exchanging communication at the moment so I don’t want to comment until I get the final comment from them.”

Asked if the African football mother body, at least, explained what was causing the delay, the answer was negative.

“No, that’s why I’m saying we are in discussion with them, they are just talking to us at the moment, they are making clarity,” Paul said.

“They have made some payments but we are not sure what those payments are for. So that’s why I don’t want to comment until they have clarified all of that over the next two, three days.” — Sports Reporter/Kick-Off