eyewitness
plenty of fans if they got there, but the
venue could be problematic. As Kattou
explains: “If you play one match and that
is against Al Ahly and the choice of the
Final is Cairo, it’s not so good.”
Money from the Champions League is
vital to Esperance, who pocketed $2.5m
for winning last year, although Meddeb
claims half of that went on players’ wages
and bonuses, while on two occasions
$100,000 was spent chartering planes
to get to matches.
Although Esperance will say that the
Champions League is their main focus, in
monetary terms the Arab Club Champions
Cup is the biggest prize these days.
Esperance have won the title three
times and picked up $2.5m for their
last victory, in 2017. Last season they
were knocked out in the first round
by Egyptian side Al Ittihad but the title
stayed in Tunisia as Etoile du Sahel took
the trophy and $6m in prize money.
This season Esperance went out on
penalties to Moroccan side Olympic Safi
in the second round and only received
$50,000 but December’s Club World
Cup provided compensation.
Esperance have never got past the
quarter-finals in three CWC appearances
and in Qatar they lost in the second
round to the Saudi side Al Hilal, but thencrushed the hosts Al Sadd 6-2 to secure
fifth place and $1.5m in prize money.
Player sales are another form
of revenue, although the club pay
sufficiently well to rival Europe as
a destination for some players.
Ghanaian midfielder Kwame Bonsu
tried his luck in Sweden before returning
to his homeland to join Asante Kotokuand then moving to Tunisia last
summer. “When Esperance came
knocking at my door it wasn’t a big
decision,” says Bonsu. “I had offers from
Europe but it’s about more playing time
and we are at a different level here.”
Top players in Tunisia can command
big wages and Esperance’s strike force of
Tunisian international Khenissi and Libya’s
Hamdou Elhouni are on around €20,000
a month.
With just one title since 2008, ClubAfricain tried to buy success to keep
up with Esperance but their reckless
spending almost sank the club.
The season before last they were
paying Congo’s Fabrice Ondama
€450,000 a year, and although every
Ligue 1 club has a marquee signing –
Mohamed Konate was on similar wages
at Etoile du Sahel – Club Africain
had more than one. For example,
Algerian winger Ibrahim Chenihi was
on €300,000 and with a wage bill like
that the debts began to pile up.
By 2018 Club Africain owed a reported
$6m and last year they were one of half
a dozen African clubs that international
players union FIFPro warned players
against joining due to non-payment of
wages. FIFA eventually banned the club
from signing any new players and this
season Club Africain had six points
deducted and were threatened with
relegation unless their debt mountain
was tackled.
In October the club called for
donations to raise one million Dinars
($350,000) over the next three months.
Viewed as the club of the people, such
is their status among Tunisians that the
$350,000 target was met in a day.
Over the following months more than
six million Dinar was raised, but as ClubPhoto:
H
aykel^ Hmima/EsperanceS
porti
ve
d
e^ Tunis“When Esperance came knocking
at my door it wasn’t a big decision.
I had offers from Europe but it’s
about more playing time and we
are at a different level here”
Ghanaian midfielder Kwame BonsuWinner...Club Africain
try to stop Esperance’s
Fousseny Coulibaly