The Confederation of African Football has identified the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2025 as its most commercially successful tournament to date, based on projected revenues and expanded global reach.
According to CAF, revenues linked to the 2025 edition have increased by more than 90 per cent compared with previous tournament cycles. This growth is attributed to a deliberate strategy to reposition AFCON as a global football property rather than a primarily regional competition.
CAF reports that the revenue surge is driven by three main factors: an increase in the number and profile of commercial partners, a broader and more complex media rights distribution model, and entry into new geographic markets, particularly in Asia and other non-traditional territories.
Between the 2021 and 2025 editions, CAF’s commercial growth has been associated with a higher volume of commercial partners, expanded media rights distribution, and targeted expansion into markets such as the Far East, including China and Japan, alongside consolidation in traditional markets.
Sponsorship data across recent tournaments illustrates this shift. During AFCON Cameroon 2021, CAF worked with nine commercial partners. This rose to 17 partners for AFCON Côte d’Ivoire 2023.
For Morocco 2025, CAF states that it has secured 23 sponsors, the highest number in the tournament’s history. This is presented as evidence that more global brands now view AFCON as a valuable platform for exposure and engagement.
CAF emphasises that the change is qualitative as well as quantitative, highlighting both the attraction of new global brands and the retention of existing partners. The organisation links this retention to perceived strong returns on investment for sponsors.
CAF’s sponsor base now spans multiple continents, with partners drawn from countries including the United States, China, Germany, Japan, Morocco, Côte d’Ivoire, the United Kingdom and Turkey, as well as entities from the European Union. This represents a shift from earlier periods when AFCON’s commercial footprint was largely limited to African and a small number of European brands.
CAF attributes this globalisation of partnerships to a data-led strategy implemented after the Côte d’Ivoire 2023 finals. Audience research following that tournament indicated untapped interest in African football in several regions, particularly in Asia and parts of Latin America.
CAF states that these findings provided a roadmap for future commercial engagement, enabling it to identify regions where AFCON content already had traction and where there was potential for growth. The current cycle has therefore focused on markets with high engagement levels, including China, Japan, Brazil and selected European territories.
In parallel, CAF has adopted a more aggressive and diversified media rights strategy. Instead of relying mainly on traditional broadcasters in Africa and Europe, it has expanded distribution to additional television partners, digital platforms and streaming services, with the aim of reaching audiences in new markets.
By entering new territories and reinforcing its presence in established football markets, CAF reports that it has been able to secure higher media rights fees and offer sponsors access to a broader and more varied audience. This repositioning is presented as a step toward establishing AFCON as a global football property, even if its scale remains below that of the largest international tournaments.
The commercial performance around Morocco 2025 is also linked to the wider appeal of African football. The increasing prominence of African players in leading global clubs has raised interest in their national teams and, by extension, in AFCON. CAF has attempted to leverage this by upgrading tournament branding, broadcast production standards and digital content.
Morocco’s role as host is another factor in CAF’s analysis. The country’s investment in football infrastructure and its record in staging major events are cited as elements that enhance the tournament’s attractiveness to sponsors and broadcasters, alongside local interest and political stability.
CAF indicates that the financial gains from Morocco 2025 are expected to extend beyond the tournament itself. Projected uses of increased revenue include funding for youth competitions, women’s football, refereeing, infrastructure and administrative capacity within member associations.
CAF has not released absolute revenue figures, but the reference to a more than 90 per cent increase highlights the scale of the reported shift. For an organisation that has historically faced financial and governance challenges, the 2025 commercial results are being used internally as evidence that a strategic, data-driven approach can yield measurable outcomes.
CAF’s leadership presents the Morocco 2025 cycle as a turning point, with the new commercial benchmark intended to underpin future growth. With a larger and more geographically diverse sponsor base, wider media distribution and more detailed audience insights, AFCON is being positioned as a central component of CAF’s long-term strategy for African football.
As preparations continue, the key operational question is whether CAF can convert record commercial performance into sustained benefits for the sport across the continent, including both elite competition and grassroots development.
