They might have failed to win the cup, again, but the Black Stars players would be smiling all the way to the bank.

Ghana painfully lost the AFCON finals on penalties to Cote d’Ivoire, an unfortunate repetition of the 1992 final. They received a heroes’ welcome this time when they returned, a far cry from the apathy and outright disappointment that followed the events at Brazil 2014.

This is because we can all agree they played their hearts out at this tournament, and despite losing there are few who would disagree they were the better side over the course of the three weeks in Equatorial Guinea; it certainly was not Cote d’Ivoire who swept all the individual awards after the competition.

Having received a rousing welcome at the airport, the team paid a courtesy call on the President at the Flag Staff House this afternoon. After congratulating the team and their coach Grant, the President revealed the additional bonuses for the players- to be paid by the team’s headline sponsor the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).

This is separate from all other bonuses the players are already earning from GNPC.

With a fixed $10,000 stipend per match for the campaign in Equatorial Guinea, we can conclusively reveal that each member of the Black Stars’ 23 man playing body is earning $85,000 for their three week toil serving the people of Ghana.

Football is not such a bad business, eh? What do you think, does the Black Stars deserve this financial windfall?