One million each, two million total — Ghana Premier League’s prize‑money gap
7 min read
GH₵1 million each for all 18 Premier League clubs, and GH₵2 million as the overall prize money for the season. Those are the headline figures that framed Ghana’s 2025/26 league campaign. Yet, according to former Ghana Football Association vice-president George Afriyie, two successive champions—Bibiani Gold Stars (2024/25) and Medeama SC (2025/26)—are still waiting for what winners are due.
“Now we play the league, and it ends; the winner will get maybe one million Ghana cedis. But, as far as I’m concerned, Gold Stars won the league and have still not received their prize money, as well as Medeama SC,” Afriyie told Ahenfie FM, in comments carried on Ghanasoccernet. His warning goes beyond one balance sheet. He argues that delayed payments can damage clubs’ continental preparations, from recruitment to travel logistics, and even lead to first-hurdle exits.
The figures that set expectations: GH₵1m per club and GH₵2m overall
Ahead of the 2025/26 season it was announced that each of the 18 Premier League clubs would receive GH₵1 million, while the overall prize money for the season was set at GH₵2 million. These are the only hard numbers on the table—and they sit at two different levels: a per‑club promise covering all 18 participants, and a season‑ending prize‑money figure.
Those sums frame both the operating assumptions of clubs and the prestige of winning the league. The per‑club allocation was meant for all participants, while the GH₵2 million was the season’s overall pot. The clarity and timing of those lines matter, because clubs plan around them months in advance. When such figures are flagged publicly, stakeholders—from players to sponsors—expect the cash to clear in line with the competition’s cadence.
What two recent champions say remains unpaid
Afriyie’s contention is blunt. He names two winners—Bibiani Gold Stars, who won the 2024/25 title, and Medeama SC, who claimed the 2025/26 championship—and says both are yet to receive their prize money. The phrase “as far as I’m concerned” is doing work here; it is an allegation, not an audited finding, but it is specific. It pins the conversation to the very top of the sport’s domestic pyramid, where the winner’s payout is most visible and most consequential.
His remarks arrived alongside a separate claim from Bibiani Gold Stars chief executive Akwasi Adu, who, per the same report, said the promised GH₵1 million payment to each Premier League club had not been made. Read together, the two assertions sketch a picture of a season whose headline commitments—both the per‑club GH₵1 million and the champions’ payout Afriyie references—have not reached the intended recipients, at least in the view of the people saying so.
| Item/Season | Figure or club | Status per source |
|---|---|---|
| Per‑club payment (ahead of 2025/26) | GH₵1,000,000 (each of 18 clubs) | Bibiani Gold Stars CEO Akwasi Adu says it “had not been made” |
| Overall prize money for 2025/26 season | GH₵2,000,000 | — |
| 2024/25 champions | Bibiani Gold Stars | George Afriyie says prize money “still not received” |
| 2025/26 champions | Medeama SC | George Afriyie says prize money “still not received” |
The numbers above are narrow but consequential. They anchor the debate to verifiable touchpoints: when, how much, and who says what has or has not arrived. Crucially, they also distinguish between two layers of money—one that was promised to every participant before a ball was kicked, and one attached to the status of being champions—without presuming more detail than is in the public record.
Why timing matters: recruitment, travel and early exits
Afriyie links delayed payments to performance beyond Ghana’s borders. “If the team that won the league is entitled to prize money of about one million Ghana cedis, it can prepare to play in Africa, won’t get it, and will go to Africa, and after the first game they are all eliminated and clearly nothing is working,” he said. The message is straightforward: budgets track calendars. If the prize money arrives late, transfer windows, pre‑season schedules and visa and flight bookings do not wait for it.
In practical terms, his argument is about cash flow before anything tactical. Recruitment requires deposits and wages; away ties demand airline blocks and accommodation advances; all of that must be underwritten. When funds flagged as imminent do not land, the knock‑on effects can turn into thinner squads, compressed prep time, and travel arranged on poorer terms. Afriyie is not claiming cause‑and‑effect inevitability; he is warning about probability and risk.
Reading the claims carefully: what the numbers do and don’t tell us
The report sets out two clear figures—a GH₵1 million per‑club allocation for 18 teams and a GH₵2 million overall prize money line for the 2025/26 season—and two clear claims about non‑payment: that the per‑club promise “had not been made,” and that the last two title‑winners “still” had not received their winners’ prize. What it does not establish is the disbursement timetable, tranche structure, or any partial payments that may have been made. It also doesn’t set out who within the league or association communicated the original figures, beyond locating them “ahead of the 2025/26 season.”
That absence of detail matters when drawing conclusions. Without an authoritative schedule of when each tranche is due, the difference between a delay and a default is not knowable from these numbers alone. Likewise, Afriyie’s wording—“as far as I’m concerned”—demands we treat his statement as a challenge to the official record rather than a final verdict on it. The numbers frame the debate; they don’t settle it.
The detail
Calendar to cash: how a gap turns into a sporting handicap
The numbers in public—GH₵1 million per club for all 18 teams, GH₵2 million as the overall prize pot—intersect with football’s operational calendar in predictable ways. Afriyie’s logic is the calendar one: continental assignments begin soon after domestic seasons end; the champions’ budget for recruitment, travel and other logistics is planned against receipts they believe are due at season’s close. If that money is held back, the window compresses. A striker who could have been signed on day one may be gone by day ten; a charter that was affordable a month out becomes an economy connection two weeks later. None of this requires new figures—only the sequencing implied by his warning that a team “will go to Africa, and after the first game they are all eliminated.”
Within those constraints, the difference between a per‑club allocation and a winner’s payout is also practical. The first is the baseline that can keep training grounds lit and salaries current; the second is the accelerator for continental readiness. When both are alleged to be late or unpaid, as Afriyie and Akwasi Adu contend, the champions’ edge narrows. The point is systemic rather than sensational: cash that is flagged publicly needs a timetable that matches the fixtures.
By the numbers, not by conjecture
A “by the numbers” reading has to hold the line at what is sourced. The only numeric certainties in play are GH₵1,000,000 per club for 18 clubs and GH₵2,000,000 overall for the season, both framed ahead of 2025/26, plus the fact of who won the last two titles and who says those winners were not paid. Everything else—from totals to supposed shortfalls—would be extrapolation. The value here is in tracking what was promised in public and what stakeholders now say has or has not been honoured.
This is also why names matter. Attaching Akwasi Adu to the claim about the per‑club GH₵1 million “not being made,” and George Afriyie to the assertion that both champions “still” have not received prize money, is a service to readers. It clarifies who is speaking and on what authority they speak. As more information is disclosed—timelines, proof of payment, or official responses—those same lines can be updated factually without guesswork.
What remains unclear—and why that matters to clubs
Two blanks stand out in the public record as it exists today. First, the report does not specify when the GH₵1 million per‑club allocations or the champions’ prize should have been disbursed. Second, it does not indicate whether any partial payments have been processed, or whether any conditions were attached. Those are not minor details; they shape how clubs plan and borrow, and how they communicate expectations to staff and players.
Until those blanks are filled, stakeholders are left to triangulate from statements like Afriyie’s and Adu’s. For clubs with continental commitments, the difference between imminent and indeterminate can alter an off‑season entirely. Even for clubs without Africa on the agenda, a per‑club allocation is a planning tool. When a CEO says it “had not been made,” that becomes a budgeting constraint as much as a headline.
What comes next for Gold Stars and Medeama
Two champions are now in the conversation by name: Bibiani Gold Stars and Medeama SC. If their prize money is indeed outstanding, as Afriyie maintains, the priority is obvious—clarity, then cash. The sooner winners know what is arriving and when, the sooner they can translate titles into capacity: securing key signings, locking in travel, finalising camp logistics.
Afriyie’s caution about “after the first game they are all eliminated” sketches the cost of opacity. Champions should enter Africa with momentum; when the money that recognises their domestic success is late or missing, the runway shortens. The figures are simple; the consequences, if the claims hold up, are not. In the meantime, the baseline numbers—GH₵1m per club, GH₵2m overall—remain the ledger against which public accountability is measured.
Sources: Gold Stars and Medeama are yet to receive Ghana Premier League prize money, claims George Afriyie (ghanasoccernet.com)
Images: Cover: Tahiru Rajab / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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