Tiktok, CAF partner to unite African football fans

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) and Tiktok have 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 the brand’s first major partnership in Africa and supports the continent’s most popular sport, football.

Through this year-long sponsorship, they will support the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), Africa’s biggest sporting event, which kicked off today in Cameroun, and 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 in Morocco.

The collaboration between the duo will allow fans 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 new features and filters for the football fans to enjoy.

This is coming as the brand looks to cement its position as the perfect platform for football fandom and culture across both men’s and women’s games, with the #football and #Soccer hash tags racking up 273 billion and 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.

Earlier this year, the fast growth of sporting talent, fan communities, creative sports trends and commentary on the platform led it to becoming the first digital entertainment platform to sponsor a major international tournament for UEFA with EURO 2020.

With over 1.4 million followers, the official CAF TikTok account has also become Africa’s footballing go-to fandom and 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.

TikTok Content Operations Manager for Africa, Boniswa Sidwaba, said, “African fans have not been able to come together to enjoy football due to COVID-19 regulations. For us, this is also an opportunity to bring fans around the world together again online, starting with the Cup of Nations.

“As a proudly multicultural continent, Africa is filled 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 unique content in the most African way possible by providing great entertainment for the community.”

CAF General Secretary, Veron Mosengo-Omba, said, “We’re delighted to have TikTok come on board as an official partner. Football content in Africa is in high demand and together, we’re able to create and encourage the online community to engage in and create the type of content that will take us both to new markets. 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.”

More announcements on what the football community can expect will be made in the coming days. Fans are encouraged to follow TikTok Africa social media pages for updates.