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Ivory Coast government approves $6m for national team

The current African champions will get more money from the Ivorian government to launch a title defense.

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The Ivory Coast have been given a budget boost ahead of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations finals.

The Ivorian government has approved a close to $6.2m (Ghc25.4m) budget for the team's campaign in Gabon.

READ MORE: AFCON 2017

This amount represents an increase of over $620,000 (Ghc2.6m) from the last edition two years ago.

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The Elephants, who are the defending champions after their 2015 win in Equatorial Guinea, kick off their 2017 campaign against Togo on January 16, before facing DR Congo and Morocco.

The team is currently in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on a pre-tournament camping program. They will face Sweden in a friendly on Sunday January 8, then Uganda in their final warm up game three days later.

Following the switch in title sponsorship from telecom giants Orange to oil bigwigs Total, winners of this year's Nations Cup, according to the Confederation of African Football (CAF), will be rewarded with $4m (Ghc16.9m) in prize money, a 64% increase from the previous amount of $1.5m (Ghc 6.36m).

The 2017 AFCON will kick of on the 14th of January and will wrap up on the 5th February.

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