Published on 03.24.2023 at 12:19 p.m. by Journal du Mali
Another case of unpaid premiums. Yesterday, social networks were very quickly packed with information on the Eagles strike. The latter refused to train until their situation was regularized. These are unpaid bonuses for the friendly matches against Zambia and Algeria as well as the remainder of the qualification bonus for the round of 16 of the CAN in Cameroon in 2021. Long before this strike, this Wednesday, during a press conference Boubacar Kiki Kouyaté, had mentioned the subject stressing I quote ” we have unpaid bonuses but the objective is to win the two matches against Gambia.
In order to remedy the situation and ensure that the Mali – Gambia match is not threatened, it was the financial director of the President of the Transition Assimi Goïta who went to the team hotel yesterday in the evening in order to give the bonuses to the players. The players concerned by the remainder of qualification bonuses for the round of 16 of the CAN received 5 million FCFA. The players selected for the two friendly matches received the 500,000 FCFA in selection bonuses. Also, the arrears of bonuses for the technical staff were also paid up to 41 million. In addition to these bonuses, half the salary of coach Eric Sekou Chelle and his assistant Alou Badra Diallo, an arrear of 5 and a half months, was also paid. Issues of unpaid premiums in Mali are quite recurrent in the field of sport. In July 2022, on account of the third window of the Africa Zone World Cup qualifiers and qualifiers for Afro Basket 2023, seven players decided to boycott the matches for unpaid bonuses. A refusal which resulted in the disqualification of Mali. Mali is also under a FIBA sanction for this episode. However in August 2022, while he was the guest of the program 90 minutes to convince, an initiative of the association of sports journalists of Mali, the Minister of Sports and Youth Mossa Ag Attaher underlined that in total 1.2 billion had been released by the State for all sports bonuses, including 30 million for athletics, 243 million for basketball, 10 million for rugby, to name but a few.
