The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has appointed sports and entertainment giant IMG as its global sponsorship agency until 2025.
Under the agreement, IMG will deliver new sponsorship opportunities for CAF’s 11 competitions, including the 2023 and 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), CAF Champions League, CAF African Nations Championship, CAF Confederation Cup, CAF Super Cup, CAF Women Africa Cup of Nations, and CAF Women Champions League.
Additionally, IMG will provide marketing intelligence, data analysis, and consultancy services to support CAF in the development of its new commercial sponsorship strategy.
The 2023 AFCON will be held in the Ivory Coast from January 13 to February 11, 2024.
The tournament was originally scheduled to be held this year but was postponed to 2024 due to concerns over the rainy season in the Ivory Coast.
The 2025 edition will be staged in Morocco, which was this week confirmed as one of six host nations for the 2030 FIFA World Cup.
CAF president Patrice Motsepe said: “One of CAF’s main objectives is to ensure that CAF and African Football are amongst the best in world. IMG is a global agency with vast experience in facilitating sponsorship and partnership opportunities and we are confident that together we will make CAF competitions more commercially viable and financially attractive.
“Our agreement with IMG will increase our revenues from sponsorship and contribute to the development and growth of African Football.”
Adolfo Bara, senior vice-president and managing director of football events at IMG, added: “Following Morocco’s historic performances at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar last year, which captured the heart and imagination of fans around the world, global interest in African football has never been higher.
“We look forward to building on that incredible momentum by leveraging IMG’s extensive global sales network and regional expertise, to develop more strategic sponsorship opportunities for the next generation of African football.”
CAF recently named Chinese technology company Tecno Mobile as an official sponsor of the 2023 AFCON.
It was the second official sponsor signed up by the federation for the flagship tournament joining betting brand 1XBet. Energy company TotalEnergies is the title sponsor.
