the new challenges of the African Champions League

This is one of the competitions that is becoming more and more talked about. On November 26, the first group matches of the Champions League of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) will begin. Like its very famous European counterpart, this competition is also the flagship inter-club tournament of its continent.

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But unlike the Old Continent version, the CAF Champions League is still struggling to achieve global notoriety and such massive distribution. The gap in terms of visibility, financing and TV rights remains significant. After a long period of stagnation, the competition seems, in recent years, to have begun its transformation, sporting but above all economic.

Better sporting competitiveness

If many observers have long pointed out the level of play as falling too far short of the standards expected for such a tournament, a long period of questioning and significant work, particularly on training, now seem to be starting to bear fruit. . “ There is a lot more spectacle, it’s much more open than before », explains Mansour Loum, editor-in-chief of the magazine SportNewsAfrica.

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The competition can also, today, rely on the reinforcement of important names in African football, who have chosen, this summer, to return to certain continental championships. This is for example the case of Algerian internationals Andy Delort (32 years old, 15 caps) at Mouloudia Club d’Algiers, reigning champion, and Islam Slimani (36 years old, 102 caps) at Chabab Riadhi Belouizdad, winner of the last Cup from Algeria. In its Moroccan neighbor, it is M’Baye Niang, former player of AC Milan and Stade Rennais, who came to strengthen the squad of Wydad Athletic Club.

« It has more and more identifiable personalities, headliners », Estimates an observer of African football. The last edition of the CAN also brought out new faces, such as South African goalkeeper Ronwen Williams, hero of his country’s rise to the third step of the podium, and recently came 9th in the 2024 Yachine Trophy. Like everywhere in the world of football, the competition also gives rise to some surprisessays a member of the ActuFoot Afrique specialized page. We recently saw a big club like Wydad AC being overthrown by the Botswanans Jwaneng Galaxy ».

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New economic vectors

To do this, the confederation is banking on its new economic assets. Particularly in terms of sponsorship. Present on the competition logo, Total Energies is today the “title sponsor” of competitions organized by CAF. The agreement, signed in 2016 with the oil giant, concerns the ten main competitions organized by CAF, i.e. more than 1,500 matches in cups such as the Champions League or CHAN.

The precise amount of this sponsorship contract has not been disclosed. However, according to several sources, this partnership would be estimated at around $250 million. Criticisms had been expressed by environmental associations who accused “ this partnership […] to serve the greenwashing of the multinational », relate The World Africa. The sports betting site, 1xBET is also one of the important sponsors.

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These different contracts and sponsors therefore allow the organizers to better remunerate the clubs participating in the tournament. Prize money thus increased by around 60%. The winner will receive, for example, 4 million dollars, compared to 2.5 million previously. Moroccan daily life The morning notes that this follows “ to the commitment of CAF President Patrice Motsepe to make African football competitions globally competitive and above all self-sufficient ».

« If we go back 10 years, certain African clubs, which qualified for the CAF interclub competitions, were sometimes reluctant to go there, because it was not going to be profitable for them. They were going to lose money between travel costs, accommodation, etc.explains Mansour Loum. Now it’s the other way around. We can say that playing the CAF Champions League is really interesting sportingly and financially for all the clubs. ».

Exposure on the rise but still insufficient

Television rights therefore play a major role in this attractiveness policy. In recent years, work has been undertaken by the Confederation on the search for new broadcasters. In France, the BeIn Sports group is responsible for broadcasting the tournament. CAF has also concluded agreements with SuperSport International and Azam Media (an East African broadcaster, Editor’s note), for “pay-per-view” rights, as well as with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), or even a myriad of other national channels. The goal behind all this? Significantly increase the visibility of the competition around the world.

Despite this, not all of the matches have yet been broadcast. “ Many will only broadcast the semi-finals and the final, yet these are the matches which are often the most closed, and where there is less spectacle. Many channels have a lot of channels, and could broadcast en masse from the group stages. It is typically this type of continuous broadcast which would serve to attract a wider audience and which would begin to be interested in the competition », slips Mansour Loum.

Towards a bright future?

Despite efforts to increase the visibility of the African Champions League, broadcasting still remains limited and uneven, hampering its global reach. Although agreements with international broadcasters have been signed, many of the meetings, particularly those of groups, are not yet accessible to a wide audience.

« When we compare with the European Champions League, followed everywhere, or even the Copa Libertadores or the Asian Champions League, which have wider exposure, the African “LDC” still has difficulty going beyond the continental framework. », finally comments a specialist. If the African Champions League continues to grow at its own pace, it still has a way to go to cross the borders of the continent and become an important event in world football. But with recent financial, media and sporting improvements, the various players in the competition seem determined to continue writing this story.