CAN 2025: Sponsors Are Rushing In

Dar Essalam, January 29, 2025. Patrice Motsepe wears the expression of great days. The powerful president of the Confederation of African Football has just signed with Patrick Pouyanné, CEO of TotalEnergies, a new sponsorship contract linking the Confederation to the French oil company for four additional years, until 2028.

Deal amount: 375 million euros! Under this new agreement, TotalEnergies remains the title sponsor of the 12 main competitions organized by CAF, including the prestigious Africa Cup of Nations which Morocco is preparing to host in December.

For the French energy group, present in Africa for over 90 years, this partnership is almost natural. It allows them to strengthen their foothold in Africa and their image among populations by associating with the continent’s largest sporting event.

It is also about consolidating their leadership in Africa, where they achieve nearly 20% of their global hydrocarbon production and own 4,700 service stations.

On the Confederation’s side, this lucrative contract provides them with a strategic windfall to carry out their investment program and achieve their objectives for developing African football.

Sponsorship revenues are indeed crucial for CAF. They represent nearly 40% of their overall annual revenue, with the rest shared between TV rights (50%) and FIFA transfers (10%).

For the 2023-2024 season, which saw the organization of the AFCON in Côte d’Ivoire, sponsorship revenues reached 71.4 million dollars out of total revenues of 166 million dollars.

For the 2024-2025 season, a year without AFCON, sponsorship revenues are estimated at 55.7 million dollars out of a total of 150 million dollars, according to CAF’s provisional budget.

Figures that are expected to rise significantly for the 2025-2026 year, a period that will see the organization of the AFCON in Morocco.

The amount of the CAF/TotalEnergies deal has moreover been revised upwards compared to the previous contract signed in 2016, which was reportedly valued, according to several media sources, at 250 million dollars over eight years.

Unparalleled exposure for advertisers

An inflation that experts attribute to the growth in audiences during recent editions of the AFCON. “For the last 2 or 3 editions, the AFCON has taken on another dimension, whether in terms of audience, TV rights, etc. We have moved to a higher stage.

The fact that the AFCON is taking place in Morocco this year attracts even more. The Moroccan market is much more interesting for certain brands compared to other countries.

Economically, it offers more viability and visibility,” confirms Zaki Lahbabi, General Manager of Transatlas Sport Management, the leading sports marketing agency in Morocco, which counts in its portfolio the national football team, as well as several Botola Pro clubs.

The AFCON indeed offers unparalleled exposure for advertisers. With over one billion television viewers worldwide, the competition is the most important sporting event in Africa and the 3rd largest football competition on a global scale.

The last AFCON in Côte d’Ivoire shattered audience records with 1.4 billion television viewers and broadcast in 180 countries, thus reinforcing visibility for sponsors. And an even larger audience is expected for the Moroccan edition, which aims to be the largest ever organized.

Scheduled from December 12 to January 18, it logically attracts major advertisers who are rushing to the gate.

A flood of contracts, the Chinese in force

Recent months have been marked by the signing of a slew of sponsorship contracts between CAF and major international groups. Assisted by IMG, one of the largest sponsorship agencies based in New York, CAF is chaining together sponsorship deals.

Groups like Bel (La Vache qui rit), Danone, and Royal Air Maroc have in recent months joined giants like Visa, Orange, Unilever, and Puma, as partners and official sponsors of CAF, in anticipation of the 2025 AFCON.

More recently, it is the company Eaux Minérales d’Oulmès, through its brand Sidi Ali, that signed a sponsorship contract with CAF to become the official water supplier of the competition.

A new development: Chinese companies are also increasingly present. This is the case for Tecno, a company specializing in the manufacture of mobile phones and electronic devices, which has become a global official partner of CAF for the next two AFCONs.

It is also the case for Apsonic, a brand of scooters and motorcycles, which has established itself as an official sponsor of the AFCON for the next two editions.

More recently, Midea, a Chinese company specializing in home appliances, concluded an agreement with CAF to become the official sponsor of the 2025 AFCON, at a time when the company is about to invest substantially in order to conquer the African market.

Because for companies like Midea, associating with the AFCON constitutes the royal road to fulfill their ambitions of penetrating the highly promising continental market.

As Lahbabi emphasizes: “Competitions like the AFCON are one of the few channels that allow brands to communicate at a continental level. There are very few apart from football. There is no abundance of choice for structured events with a continental reach.”

The amounts of these contracts remain confidential, but according to our sources, the average entry ticket is substantial, ranging in the order of 5 to 10 million dollars per year.

The return on investment is indeed there. “The fallout in terms of image and notoriety is significant. Whatever one may say, football remains a means of uniting around a passion. We are in the realm of emotion,” explains our sports marketing expert.

The national team, the flagship

If sponsorship contracts with CAF are generally the prerogative of large multinationals with continental ambitions, Moroccan companies (or those based in Morocco) are following a more national logic.

And it is the Atlas Lions team that attracts all the covetousness. To date, the Royal Moroccan Football Federation has about ten sponsors, including groups like Dari, Centrale Danone, Sonasid, Skoda, Pepsi, Haier, etc.

These companies have visibility during the national team’s matches, including qualifications for the AFCON and the World Cup as well as friendly matches, throughout the duration of the contract.

However, contracts concluded with the FRMF do not include the presence of these advertisers within the stadiums during the AFCON and the World Cup, because the rights to these competitions belong to CAF and FIFA.

“They will not be present in the stadium, but they can communicate around the national team, do billposting, activations, marketing actions…

That is to say, use the national team in the context of the AFCON,” explains Lahbabi. Other partnerships are under negotiation with major Moroccan groups and announcements are expected. An attractiveness of the Atlas Lions that owes much to their memorable journey in the Qatari World Cup.

“It is clear that since the results of the 2022 World Cup, the national team has taken on another dimension,” specifies our interlocutor. Fees have logically soared: Budgets are at a minimum of 4 to 5 million dirhams per year.

A proper partner of the national team revolves around 8 to 9 million dirhams per year. Five years ago, we were around 3 million. That has almost tripled. A good omen for the development of the sports economy…