Oil and gas giant TotalEnergies has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting African soccer's governing body CAF, with the pair renewing their long-running partnership for a further four years.
This new deal, unveiled earlier this week, covers 12 CAF competitions in the 2025-2028 cycle that will be title sponsored by TotalEnergies, including the high-profile Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) men's national teams tournament in 2025 and 2027, and the Women’s AFCON 2024 (which will be hosted in July this year due to scheduling difficulties stemming from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games).
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At national team level, the African Nations Champions, a competition only for players based in Africa, will also be sponsored by TotalEnergies, as will the under-23, under-20, and under-17 youth category AFCON competitions, and the Futsal AFCON.
Meanwhile, the club-level CAF Champions League, CAF Confederations Cup, and the CAF Super Cup will all be TotalEnergies branded, as will the body’s annual CAF Awards, and its CAF African Schools Football Championship youth competition.
TotalEnergies has sponsored CAF competitions since 2016, with this latest renewal taking the partnership beyond a decade in length, with the value being worth a reported $31.25 million per year, or $250 million total over the initial eight years of the deal.
As title sponsor to all these competitions, TotalEnergies' branding will be present across the slate of major tournaments, covering hundreds of fixtures.
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By GlobalDataSpeaking on the renewed tie-up, CAF president Patrice Motsepe stated: “This partnership contributes to the development and global competitiveness of football in the 54 African countries whose federations are members of CAF.
“The values of governance, ethics, transparency, and commitment to the development and growth of our communities and countries in Africa are values that TotalEnergies is also committed to.”
TotalEnergies is a major player in Africa’s oil, gas, and energy industries, and has faced criticism for undermining global climate change efforts by increasing fossil fuel extraction, and as such it has been argued that the firm is utilizing the sponsorship to launder its reputation.
CAF itself has also been fraught with controversy in recent years, with its leadership under scrutiny over corruption allegations and mismanagement, the latter exemplified by the 2024 Women’s AFCON, which will be played in Morocco in 2025 to avoid a clash with the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, after the 2020 edition was canceled altogether due to Covid-19 despite the men’s iteration being just postponed.
Dubbed WAFCON, the event will take place from July 5-26.
Meanwhile, AFCON’s 2025 men’s edition will begin on December 21, 2025, and will continue until January 18, 2026, when its showpiece final will take place.
Both events will be staged in Morocco, which was not the initial host planned for the men’s event.
Hosting rights for 2025 had originally been held by the sub-Saharan country of Guinea, which handed back the rights because of inadequate facilities and infrastructure in 2022.
