The Pitch: AFCON doesn't make major business splash
Egypt's Mohamed Salah vies for the ball with Cape Verde's Joao Paulo Fernandes during the 2025 CAF Africa Cup of Nations. Pic: KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images
Amid all of the reaction and debate which greeted the Jamie Carragher comments that AFCON was not a major tournament, were a lack of hard facts from critics.
Compared to the Euros, the African competition is not even close through the key measurements of Revenue, Rights and Ticketing - but it does track favourably in certain areas over Copa America across some financial markers.
Does this also mean, based on exchanges, that the 'Copa’ is not a major tournament either?
Certainly within their own territories and membership federations - CAF (Africa) and CONMEBOL and CONCACAF (Americas) - both tournaments are huge events, but globally not so much.
First let’s look again at the main point Carragher was trying to make, with his view that Mo Salah would win the Ballon d’Or if he were not limited to playing in the African competition.
This was a reasonable point, and history backs that up that only one player from the continent has won football’s highest individual honour - George Weah in 1995.
“I think the problem is the fact he’s with Egypt, and he’s probably not playing in the major tournament as such or maybe got a great chance of winning,” the ex-Liverpool defender said on Sky Sports.
“I think it’s either the Champions League or the major tournament [that wins it], the player who excels in that, like Vinicius Jr and Kylian Mbappe right now."
Fellow pundit Micah Richards interjected, saying: “I’ll just say, AFCON is a major tournament. A lot of people at home will say they’re taking that seriously. AFCON is a major tournament, just so you know.”
Another former Red, Daniel Sturridge supported Richards view: “It’s a fact, it’s a fact. If you win the Euros or the Copa America it’s deemed to be big, so AFCON is on the same level.”
Carragher subsequently doubled down through social media, when he said - “I don’t think AFCON carries the weight of other tournaments”.
Let’s look at the value of the three competitions – not through the prism of the Ballon d’Or – but through those more valuable lenses which focus on Revenue, Prize Money, Broadcast and Ticketing.
To appreciate these values it is worth pointing out that AFCON is not as exclusive as its rivals, with the competition taking place every two years and coming in the middle of the European league season, losing significant engagement value.
To compare all three we will examine the last tournament for each – Euro2024 in Germany, Copa America 2024 in the US and AFCON 2024 in the Ivory Coast.
The last AFCON tournament, which was also won by Ivory Coast, saw overall revenue of just $109m, a figure dwarfed by Euro2024’s $2.6bn (€2.44bn).
Sponsorship income for the African tournament saw a 21 per cent increase in earnings to $75m, compared to $535m for Euro 2024, with the European Championships in Ireland and the UK expected to drive commercial partnership fees towards $700m.
However, AFCON achieved greater value than last year’s Copa America which achieved the lowest commercial partnership values of approximately $66m from sponsors.
The African commercial partnerships increased 65 per cent on the previous tournament, thanks to a lift in overall sponsorship assets, with seven extra brands signing up, bringing a total of 17 tournament sponsors.
Copa’ had 10 sponsors on board, driving average per-sponsor fees to a unit price of $6.6m, compared to Africa’s $4.4m per partner.
A significant assessment of the financial power of the various tournaments comes under the vital measurement of prize money, vital at least to the players and their bonuses, and for driving revenues across each qualifying national association.
The current holders of AFCON – Ivory Coast – took an overall prize purse of $7.5m, with $4m going to the runner-up Nigeria, and $2.5m to the two losing semi-finalists, with quarter finalists receiving just $1.3m each.
These exchanges are dwarfed by the Euros with each European nation securing €9.25m, before a ball was kicked, with values surging as the tournament progresses.
Spain took home approximately €28.5m as tournament winners, following their win over England in the final.
Last year’s Copa America winners Argentina secured $16m in prize payments, including $2m in participation fees, which all finalists received.
Runners-up Colombia were paid $7m – a similar value to the AFCON first prize payments achieved by that competition’s winners.
In the US, each quarter-finalist received an additional $2m, with the fourth placed team getting $4m and the third placed side receiving $5m.
Television revenues increased by 33 per cent for the AFCON from its previous total – thanks mainly to an $80m rights deal with a previously unknown Togo-based broadcaster New World TV, which in turned licensed out the rights to other broadcast partners.
That money included the rights for a number of other CAF tournaments but allowed New World to sub-licence packages to a host of global broadcasters across 110 territories - a 65 per cent lift in TV reach on the previous competition.
Of these new partners – 41 were free-to-air (FTA) showing games across 171 territories, a 15 per cent increase into new markets, including Brazil, India, Italy and Russia.
The bulk of the rights were soaked up by pay-per-view networks with Premier Sports carrying the tournament live here.
For the Euros, media rights values are at a whole other level, where the revenue achieved from broadcast partnerships surpassed €1.135bn.
The value of broadcast rights for the the Copa’ are not published, but due to multi-media deals with the likes of Fox, CanalPlus and others, that total revenue should sit at approximately $150m.
The clearest measurement in the difference in reach and engagement comes through estimates and statements by stakeholders into how many people watched tournaments.
Caf boss Patrice Motsepe estimated nearly two billion people watched the tournament globally, while the accepted estimate for the Euros is five billion worldwide – with no estimates available for Copa.
CAF declared following the 2023 tournament that it had achieved attendances of 1.2m throughout the competition, although it does not report the value of these ticketing receipts, which will have been considerably lower than its European or South American values.
The number of tickets, or spectators who attended all games at the European championships, combined to an approximate total of 2.67m in unit sales, while the Copa America played out in front of 1.6m fans.
While Carragher has undoubtedly opened up a lively debate, the reality is that there are only two major football tournaments - the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euros.
And while some, including Rio Ferdinand might say that is a view which lacks respect, the data doesn’t lie.
Domino’s pizza has been unveiled as the the new title sponsor of the Men’s and Women’s Super League and Division One competitions.
In what Basketball Ireland describe as “game-changing partnership”, it says the deal will elevate the game and its tournaments to a bigger and wider audience.
The announcement comes at what is a crucial part of the fixture list with clubs fighting it out for the end of season playoffs, ahead of what will now be know as the Domino’s Super League and Division One finals, taking place on April 12 and 13 at the National Basketball Arena.
The British & Irish Lions and Rugby Australia have announced Unilever’s leading deodorant Dove Men+Care as a partner for this year’s Series in Australia.
The new agreement will see the brand named Official Personal Care Product of Choice for The Lions and the Wallabies with a series of branded products released in the lead-up to the Tour.
Interestingly among the products included are a 72-hour deodorant, a 48-hour deodorant and body wash.
The limited-edition products will also be present in the players’ dressing rooms throughout the Qatar Airways Lions Men’s Series, Australia 2025.
