The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has announced a partnership with TikTok as the latter aims to bring content to fans of the sport in the continent and globally.

The collaboration with the video-focused social networking service introduces pre/ post match content, highlights and football-related challenges, whilst marking the company’s first major brand partnership in Africa. 

CAF General Secretary, Veron Mosengo-Omba, commented: “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. 

TikTok will be supporting the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), starting this month, whilst also working alongside TotalEnergies CAF Champions League 2022 and the TotalEnergies CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations 2022.

“We look forward to working with TikTok in creating true African football experiences for fans around the world, virtually,” Mosengo-Omba continued. “To us, this is not just about being a football federation but about continuing to be the single-biggest football entertainment producers in Africa, giving fans everywhere, world-class football experiences throughout the year.”

As the deal comes at a time where an increasing number of businesses are looking to expand into Africa, in what has been labeled by some experts in the field as a ‘key’ market, TikTok has stated that it has been looking into alternative ways to engage fans through ‘in-app effects, a hub for tournaments, features and filters’.

Furthermore, the partnership has been struck in the lead up to what is expected to be be a big event in women’s football, whilst figures have shown that content on the platform with ‘#AfricanFootball’ has reached over 48.3 million views.

Boniswa Sidwaba, TikTok Content Operations Manager for Africa, added: “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.”

The company has cited the growth of TikTok in recent years, in terms of sports content and fans on the platform, as a main reason for becoming the first digital entertainment platform to sponsor a major international tournament for UEFA with EURO 2020

This announcement in February 2021 saw TikTok launch a range of fan engagement features such as AR effects, hashtag challenges, TikTok lives and sounds, whilst UEFA also looked to create an official TikTok account to provide followers of the tournament with behind-the-scenes content as well as current and historic footage.

Previous articleSwindon Town links with Stake.com ahead of Manchester City clash
Next articleMeruelo’s Arizona Coyotes launches betting platform under same ownership