Boakai Doubles Player Bonuses, Launches $10 Million Nationwide AFCON Fundraising Drive

President Joseph Boakai has doubled financial incentives for the Lone Star and launched a nationwide fundraising campaign targeting $10 million to support Liberia's 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign, following through on the funding push he first backed earlier this month. Player appearance fees and match-winning bonuses both rise from $1,000 to $2,500 under the new structure.

The commitments were unveiled at a September 11 fundraising gala at the Ministerial Complex, where more than $3 million was pledged on the night itself, according to organizers, leaving a substantial gap still to close before the $10 million target is reached. "When we invest in sports, we invest in our young people, and when we invest in our young people, we invest in the future of Liberia," Boakai told the gathering of corporate leaders, government officials and football stakeholders.

Bea Mountain Mining Corporation received special recognition at the event for funding two new football academies, which organizers described as the first of their kind in Liberia, adding to the company's separate $50,000 pledge toward the qualifying campaign reported earlier this month. Boakai framed Liberia's football struggles as a systems problem rather than a talent shortage, calling on government, private industry and individual Liberians to keep contributing toward sustainable football infrastructure rather than treating the AFCON push as a one-off expense.

The doubled bonuses and fundraising campaign now sit alongside a pending CAF inspection of the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex, which will determine whether Liberia can host its Group K qualifiers against Mali, Cape Verde and Rwanda at home. Money alone will not resolve that question, but the scale of Wednesday's pledges suggests the private sector and diaspora are treating this AFCON campaign, Liberia's bid to reach the finals for the first time since 2002, as more than symbolic.