TikTok and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) today, Thursday, January 6, 2022 announced a first-of-its-kind partnership that will bring unmissable football content to fans, both on the continent and across the globe.
It marks TikTok’s first major brand partnership in Africa and supports the continent’s most popular sport – football. Through this year-long sponsorship, TikTok will be supporting the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations, Africa’s biggest sporting event, kicking off on January 9, 2022 in Cameroon.
TikTok will also be a part of the action for the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League 2022 and the TotalEnergies CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations 2022 in Morocco.
The collaboration, brokered by AGON, between TikTok and CAF will allow fans to celebrate the tournaments’ unforgettable moments together. With everything from pre and post-match content and highlights, to football-related challenges, TikTok will become a home for the spirit and passion of these iconic sporting events.
TikTok will be offering its community new ways of creating and engaging with African football, with cool in-app effects, a special hub for tournaments as well as cool features and filters for the football community to enjoy, the partners said in a statement.
TikTok as the perfect platform for football
This partnership comes as TikTok cements its position as the perfect platform for football fandom and culture across both men’s and women’s games, with the #football and #Soccer hashtags racking up an incredible 273 billion & 108 billion views to-date, respectively. On the continent, #AfricanFootball with over 48.3 million views is proof that Africans continue to love football content on the platform, while creating great review content and participating in fun-filled challenges.
With over 1.4 million followers on TikTok, the official CAF TikTok account has also fast become Africa’s footballing go-to fandom & with tournaments such as AFCON making a return on the continent, we can expect to see continued growth and love for the sport on the platform.
Boniswa Sidwaba, TikTok Content Operations Manager for Africa, underscored the pandemic has made it very difficult for spectators to enjoy the game physically at the stadium.
“Fans on the African continent have not been able to come together to enjoy the beautiful game of football due to COVID-19 regulations. For us, this is also an opportunity to bring African football fans around the world together again, online, starting with the much anticipated TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations.
“As a proudly multicultural continent, Africa is beaming with creativity and talent. We see a lot of potential to harness and cultivate creative football expression on our platform. We certainly look forward to inspiring fans to celebrate and participate in content unique to TikTok, in the most African way possible, providing great entertainment for the community”.
Boniswa Sidwaba
CAF Delighted to have TikTok on board
CAF General Secretary, Mr Veron Mosengo-Omba, expressed his joy for the partnership with the leading destination for mobile video, TikTok.
“We are truly delighted to have TikTok come on board as an official partner. Football content in Africa is in high demand and together with TikTok we are able to create and encourage the online community to engage in and create the type of content that will take both brands to new markets. We look forward to working with TikTok in creating true African football experiences for fans around the world.
“This partnership recognizes CAF not just as a football body but our position as the single-biggest football entertainment producers in Africa, giving fans everywhere, world-class football experiences throughout the year”.
Veron Mosengo-Omba
CAF disclosed in a statement that more announcements on what the football community can expect on TikTok will be made in the coming days. Fans are encouraged to follow TikTok Africa social media pages for updates.
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