ABIDJAN, December 24 – The Ivorian Football Federation (FIF) has rejected the budget allocated by the country’s government for the Elephants’ Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) campaign, dismissing it as insufficient.
The government agreed to hand over 310 million CFA Francs (£370,965, $575,805) to help the Ivory Coast in their bid to win the tournament in Equatorial Guinea, which runs from January 17 to February 8.
However, FIF vice-president Sory Diabate told national media on Tuesday: “We can’t go to the CAN with 310 million CFA Francs. We have transmitted and justified our expenditure.”
The country’s sports minister was willing to hand over the amount from a total provisional budget of 3.5 billion CFA Francs.
However, the Ivory Coast went to the 2013 Cup of Nations in South Africa with a total budget of 3.9 billion CFA Francs, with the government eventually helping out to the tune of 2.7 billion as the Elephants were knocked out by Nigeria in the quarter-finals.
