Continental says its Tyre Division’s newly announced sponsorship of The Total Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) will improve awareness of the premium brand across Africa.
The next tournament will be staged in Egypt from 21 June to 19 July 2019 and as part of the five-year agreement between Continental and the Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF), the extensive rights package also includes the next two editions of the tournament for 2021 and 2023.
“The Africa Cup of Nations is the biggest and most important sports competition in the African continent, a region where we are targeting further growth over the next few years,” said Jon Ander Garcia, Regional Manager – Africa & Middle East, Continental. “Africa is a key emerging market for Continental and football is undoubtedly the continent’s most popular sport. With this sponsorship, we aim to get closer to the consumers, and bring exciting engaging activations through the global language of football.”
Continental said in a statement that the company aims to leverage the Total AFCON platform to continue to deliver “exceptional benefits to its local communities, clients, partners and fans as they come together to support the best of African football”.
The rights package will also include the exclusive sponsorship of the ‘Best Goalkeeper’ performance index of the tournament.
“As the team’s last line of defence, the keeper’s role of safeguarding the goalmouth reflects Continental’s own safety values, with the manufacturer being known as a pioneer in road safety for more than 140 years. Safety is also reflected in Continental’s Vision Zero initiative to make roads safer in the future, to have zero fatalities, zero injuries and zero crashes,” said the company.
“We are pleased to welcome Continental as a new sponsor of the Africa Cup of Nations. This new partnership shows that our flagship tournament is not only the most watched football event in Africa, but also the continent’s premier sporting event,” said CAF president Ahmad Ahmad. “We are very hopeful about the exchange of our respective values through such a partnership, and thanks to Continental we are excited about the launch of the Best Goalkeeper award.”
