CAF Puts a Decade of AFCON Commercial Rights on the Market as Tournament Moves to Four-Year Cycle
Image by CAF Online
The Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF) has opened an Invitation to Tender for the global commercial rights to the Africa Cup of Nations for 2028, 2032 and 2036, packaging media, broadcast and sponsorship inventory for the first three editions of the tournament's new quadrennial era into a single mandate. Bids close 24 August 2026 at 17h00 Cairo time.
The scope covers the sale and distribution of media rights, sponsorship and marketing assets, with CAF saying it is seeking an "innovative partner" to unlock new revenue streams and lift the commercial value of the competition. Interested parties have been directed to mediasales@cafonline.com and legalaffairs@cafonline.com.
CAF is pitching from a position of measurable strength. The 2025 edition in Morocco drew a claimed 3.2 billion TV audience and 6 billion digital views, which CAF positions as the third-largest national-team football event globally behind the FIFA World Cup and the European Championship, and delivered 95% growth in commercial revenues.
The tender lands three weeks after CAF opened bidding for the hosting rights to the same three editions, a process running with PwC as independent adviser. Ethiopia, Morocco and a Southern African joint bid have been in the frame for 2028; no host has been confirmed.
Three things make this bigger than a procurement notice.
First, the scarcity math has changed.
AFCON is estimated to account for roughly 80% of CAF's total revenue, and the move to a four-year cycle from 2028 means CAF is now selling three tournaments across a nine-year window instead of five. Fewer editions means each one has to carry materially more value. That is the whole commercial reason of bundling 2028, 2032 and 2036 together: length substitutes for frequency, and a decade-long mandate is what justifies a partner investing in distribution infrastructure across 54 markets.
Second, the 2028 edition walks into a crowded room.
AFCON 2028 will go up against UEFA's European Championship for sponsorship and media spend - a fight for the same global brand budgets that CAF has historically been able to schedule around. Whoever wins this mandate inherits that problem in year one.
Third, buyers are being asked to price uncertainty.
Bids are due in August for tournaments whose hosts, and in 2028's case whose exact window, are unresolved. CAF also expands AFCON to 28 teams from 2028 and launches an African Nations League in 2029, inventory that sits outside this tender but competes for the same calendar and sponsor attention.
The deeper test is structural. CAF has run its commercial rights largely in-house since the collapse of its long-term Lagardère Sports arrangement in 2019. This tender is the moment it decides whether to rebuild that outsourced model - and on whose terms.
