By By Chris Dlamini
Police outfit Royal Leopard did not win the league, but they have the highest earners in the 2024/25 season.
The police outfit finished on position two in the exciting MTN Premier League after they were pipped to the title by ambitious Shiselweni outfit Nsingizini Hotspurs.
The league champions take home E1 million, and that will be Nsingizini, who celebrated their success on Saturday with their end of season awards at Nsingizini Sports Ground.
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For being runners-up, Leopard will receive E500 000. This prize will add to the E100 000 first round leaders’ incentive they won, taking their earnings to E600 000 from the league only and excluding gate collections.
It is also Leopard who took home the Ingwenyama Cup 2024/25 title with a champions’ prize of E1.45 million, a tournament that also qualified them to the TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup.
In this Confederation of African Football (CAF), interclub competition they have a guaranteed US$50 000 stipend, which is for all qualified and participating teams in the preliminary stage.
Converted to local currency, US$50 000 equates to about E900 000 (E893,350) at the time of calculation on Tuesday.
Otherwise, it can even surge close to E1 million or way above E900 000 on a good day with the exchange rate.
This takes Leopard’s earnings to a cool near E3 million. To be precise, Leopard raked in E2,943,350.00 from all competition prizes and their upcoming CAF Confederation Cup 2025/26 participation in August.
Meanwhile, coming in on second is league and MoMo Cup champions Nsingizini. As already mentioned, they will be taking home E1 million for the league title. Nsingizini also successfully defended their MoMo Cup title and pocketed the E1 million champions’ prize.
This doubles to E2 million with the league success while they are also entitled to CAF’s E893, 350 (US$50 000) in the preliminary stage of the Champions League.
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The CAF windfall will take their earnings to E2.9 million (E2, 893, 350).
Millions of cash lie ahead for them and Leopard if they reach the group stages. Currently, the two teams have shared over E5.8 million in combined prizes.
Completing the top four are Ingwenyama Cup and 8bet Trade Fair Cup runners-up Moneni Pirates and 8bet Trade Fair Cup champions Young Buffaloes.
Moneni got E600 000 as Trade Fair Cup runners-up and went on to be the winners of the E650 000 Ingwenyama Cup runners-up prize, taking their earnings to E1.25 million. On top of these, Moneni will receive a further E100 000 for their fifth spot finish in the league, making a total of E1.35 million (E1, 350,000).
Meanwhile, Buffaloes will add E350 000 to their Trade Fair Cup success, taking their earnings to E1.35 million (E1, 350, 000). All in all, these were the top four highest earning teams from the past season.
Both Leopard and Nsingizini have confirmed they were going to play in the CAF interclub tournaments. A list of the top four highest earning teams domestically is included here.
Eswatini’s top 4 highest earning teams in 2024/25:
1. Royal Leopard – E2, 943,350
2. Nsingizini Hotspurs – E2,893,350
3. Moneni Pirates – E1, 350,000
4. Young Buffaloes – E1,350,000
