AFCON 2021: CAF announce partnership with TikTok

Africa's apex football body Confederation of African Football (CAF) have announced a partnership with video sharing platform TikTok.

The announcement was made ahead of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations which kicks off on Sunday, January 9, 2022 in Cameroon.

In its first major brand partnership in Africa, TikTok will support AFCON and other CAF's major competitions in 2022 like the Champions League and Women's Africa Cup of Nations as part of the year-long sponsorship agreement.

With this collaboration, TikTok will be offering its community new ways of creating and engaging with African football.

“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 Total Energies Africa Cup of Nations," Boniswa Sidwaba, TikTok Content Operations Manager for Africa said in a statement.

“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," Sidwaba also said.

CAF General Secretary, Mr Veron Mosengo-Omba said the body is delighted with having TikTok come on board as a 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," Mosengo-Omba said.

"We look forward to working with TikTok in creating true African football experiences for fans around the world.

"This partnership recognises 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.”

This is not the first time TikTok will be part of a major football tournament. The video-focused social media network was one of UEFA's partners for Euro 2020 which held in 2021.

The network has been home to football fandom and culture with the #football and #Soccer hashtags racking up an incredible 273 billion and 108 billion views to-date, respectively.

In Africa, #AfricanFootball has over 48.3 million views while the official TikTok page of CAF currently boasts over 1.4 million followers.