Les Elephants de la Cote d’Ivoire have been allocated a budget worth 3.9 million CFA francs which is equivalent to about 6 million USD as budget for the national team’s participation in the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations, the Sports and Recreation minister for the Ivory Coast, François Albert Amichia, has announced on Saturday on Radio Cote d’Ivoire.
There has been an increment by an amount closer to 400 milion CFA francs in the budget for the defending Africa champions as the team took 3.5 million CFA francs to the last Africa campaign in Equatorial Guinea which they rightly justified by annexing the trophy beating Ghana 9-8 on penalties.
Head coach Michel Dussuyer named his interim 24-man squad for the tournament in December 2016 that included defenders Serge Aurier of PSG, Manchester United’s Eric Bailly and Lamine Kone of Sunderland. Some notable midfieders in the list are hard tackler Serey Die of FC Basel and the talented Franck Kessie of Atalanta Bergamo. Strikers Wilfried Bony and Salomon Kalou are feature.
On 16th January, the reigning Kings of African football open their 2017 AFCON campaign against Togo in Oyem, then take on DR Congo four days later before wrapping up their group play against Morocco on 24th January in the same city of Oyem.
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