CAF Africa Cup of Nations 2025 sponsorship and media rights took a decisive step this week, with KONAMI unveiled as the official gaming sponsor for the 2025 and 2027 editions and CAF opening a fresh tender for interclub media rights across Sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the world. The twin moves speak to football’s expanding digital heartbeat and a broadcast market that is racing to keep pace with surging audiences across the continent.
KONAMI’s agreement with the Confédération Africaine de Football secures exclusive gaming rights to recreate the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations within its global eFootball franchise. For a generation that swaps between stadium chants and controller clicks, this is a bridge that turns matchday emotion into an always-on experience.
Inside the KONAMI deal
The partnership covers AFCON 2025 and AFCON 2027, and places Africa’s flagship international tournament inside one of the world’s most played football games. It signals a confident stride in CAF’s digital transformation strategy, with the governing body prioritising innovation and global fan engagement.
“The TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2025 will be one of the most exciting and widely followed editions of our flagship competition. Our partnership with KONAMI reflects CAF’s commitment to innovation, global fan engagement, and creating new opportunities for African youth in both football and digital spaces.”
Those words from CAF General Secretary Véron Mosengo-Omba capture the direction of travel, a tournament that lives on television and in the hands of fans who will soon be able to play the license in eFootball. The 2025 showpiece will take place in Morocco from 21 December 2025 to 18 January 2026, a holiday-season window primed for massive attention.
KONAMI, for its part, is leaning into the continent’s competitive identity and global reach. The company highlights the chance to deliver the passion of African football through an enhanced eFootball experience, one that brings tournament licenses and new African star players to a worldwide audience.
“We are delighted to announce the establishment of a partnership with CAF. This partnership brings new possibilities to the gaming experience, and we are truly excited to deliver the passion of the African region-home to some of the world’s most powerful soccer nations-to fans around the globe through eFootball™, and this partnership opens up exciting new possibilities for the gaming experience. Through this initiative, we look forward to adding new African star players and tournament licenses such as TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations, further enhancing the realism and excitement of eFootball.”
CAF opens an interclub media rights race
Alongside the gaming deal, CAF launched a tender for media rights to its interclub competitions for the 2025 and 2026 cycle. The brief covers the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup for the 2025-26 season, and extends to the CAF Super Cup 2026 and the CAF Women’s Champions League 2026.
The tender closes on Monday, 10 November 2025 at 12h00 Egyptian time, a clear deadline that will focus broadcasters and streaming platforms across key markets. Interested companies can request the Invitation to Tender document by emailing [email protected], with further enquiries directed to [email protected].
The rights on offer
CAF has carved out packages that reflect how fans actually watch, from subscription services to free-to-air reach. The tender spans Sub-Saharan English and local languages, as well as a Rest of the World bundle, while setting specific territorial exclusions.
- Sub-Saharan English pay-tv and local languages,
- Sub-Saharan free-to-air all languages,
- Rest of the world all languages.
Exclusions mark out the MENA region in all languages and French-speaking pay-tv in particular. This gives CAF the flexibility to manage parallel negotiations in those markets while still pushing for wider coverage elsewhere.
Why this matters for fans and broadcasters
CAF’s interclub portfolio is gaining real traction, and the numbers tell a compelling story. The previous season recorded a 35 percent increase in TV audiences in Sub-Saharan Africa, with Southern and East Africa providing notable lift, while North Africa and the MENA region drove global demand with over 40 percent audience growth.
Those figures speak to a shifting center of gravity in viewing habits, and to the rise of domestic leagues that feed the continental stage. When club football surges, the Champions League and Confederation Cup become essential viewing, and rights packages become the currency of connection between the game and its communities.
For broadcasters, the strategic question is clear, how to balance premium pay-tv windows with the reach of free-to-air platforms in diverse language markets. For fans, the prize is simple, more reliable access to the games that define weekends from Johannesburg to Dar es Salaam and beyond.
Digital dreams meet matchday reality
Put the two developments together, and you see a modern blueprint forming. The KONAMI partnership invites supporters to experience AFCON inside eFootball, then carry that excitement into real-world broadcasts of clubs they follow across the continent.
That flow matters, because it is how younger fans form deep bonds with competitions and players. A controller session that features a licensed AFCON match can be the spark that sends a viewer to tune in to the CAF Champions League on a Saturday night, a habit that multiplies the value of rights and the resonance of the sport.
The human pulse behind the numbers
There is a reason the audience curves are bending upward, and it is not just scheduling or distribution. Clubs in Southern and East Africa have taken a tangible leap in level, and domestic leagues in those markets are climbing in popularity, all of which feeds anticipation for continental nights.
Every emerging academy graduate and every crowd that swells in a local derby adds weight to these media stories. When a region believes its clubs can compete, it watches, it shares, and it demands coverage that respects the scale of its passion.
Clarity on what is and is not in play
It is important to separate the domains, the KONAMI agreement is about exclusive gaming rights for AFCON 2025 and 2027 in eFootball, while the media tender concerns interclub competitions for the 2025-26 and 2026 windows. The AFCON broadcast landscape is not part of this interclub tender, and the tender excludes MENA and paid French-language rights.
This clean delineation matters to rights buyers and to fans looking for where to watch. It also suggests CAF is sequencing commercial moves with precision, matching product type to platform and timing.
How the tender shapes coverage on the ground
Sub-Saharan English and local-language rights in pay-tv will likely return premium match windows and shoulder programming tailored to specific markets. The free-to-air component invites broader reach, crucial for communities that build weekend rituals around communal viewing.
The Rest of the World bucket ensures that diaspora and global football fans can access the tournaments with consistency. When a competition delivers 35 percent growth in one season, it becomes a canvas for creative distribution, and a test of how well broadcasters can localise their storytelling.
CAF’s strategic through line
The connective tissue here is CAF’s emphasis on innovation and growth. The gaming sponsorship with KONAMI accelerates digital engagement, while the interclub tender rides a demonstrable rise in viewership to expand the competitions’ footprint.
At heart, both moves aim to deliver better experiences to supporters in Africa and around the world. The success metrics are simple, more people watching, more people playing, and more people feeling that continental football belongs to them.
What to watch in the coming months
As bidders circle the interclub rights, several questions loom. Which platforms will champion free-to-air access in key markets, how will pay-tv partners differentiate with production and language options, and where will digital-only plays find their edge.
On the gaming side, eFootball’s integration of the AFCON license offers new entry points for fans who might discover players and rivalries before seeing them live on television. The promise of new African star players within the game is a powerful draw, especially for younger audiences who map their football fandom across screens.
Key dates and contacts
- Afcon 2025 in Morocco runs from 21 December 2025 to 18 January 2026,
- The CAF interclub media rights tender closes on Monday, 10 November 2025 at 12h00 Egyptian time.
- Invitation to Tender requests, [email protected],
- Further enquiries, [email protected].
The bigger picture for African football
There is a sense of confidence in these announcements, a belief that African football can set its own tempo in the global marketplace. Stronger clubs, rising leagues, and a flagship national competition with a global stage, all of it feeds a virtuous cycle.
With KONAMI’s partnership adding a powerful digital layer and the interclub tender positioning the game for broader visibility, the stage is set for another leap. It will be measured in audience numbers and game downloads, but also in the quieter victories that happen when a fan finds a reliable broadcast or a teenager picks up a controller and sees their heroes reflected back at them.
A final thought
Football’s magic has always lived at the crossroads of memory and possibility. CAF’s latest moves bring those worlds closer together, with the roar of AFCON soon to echo inside eFootball, and the drama of interclub nights poised to reach more homes across Africa and beyond.
The destination is a more connected game, one where the pathways between playing, watching, and belonging feel shorter and more familiar. For supporters, that is what matters most, a sport that meets them where they are and invites them to go further.
