The biggest deal in African sporting history has been closed. Inas Mazhar looks at the details Africa's largest cellular provider, the South African Mobile company, has become the new title sponsor of the African Cup of Nations and the first ever sponsor of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Champions League. The signing took place at CAF headquarters at the 6th of October City in Cairo with CAF President Issa Hayatou attending. The agreement, worth some $12.5 million, is the biggest sponsorship deal in African sporting history and will run until 2008. It will include two African Nations Cups, in Cairo 2006 and Ghana 2008, as well as the African Champions League. "MTN is especially proud of becoming the sponsor of a tournament that is as old as CAF itself, with the first African Cup of Nations taking place at CAF's founding assembly in Khartoum in 1957," said MTN CEO Phetuma Nhelko. The CAF Champions League is the most prestigious club competition on the continent, and sees teams from the national leagues of Africa battling it out for the honour of becoming the best club in Africa. Along with the glory of becoming Africa's best club, the tournament carries prize money worth $1 million for the winners and $750, 000 for the finalists, making the MTN CAF Champions League the richest club competition in Africa. "CAF is delighted to welcome MTN as the key sponsor of African football, particularly as it is committed to a long-term vision for the game, " Hayatou said. "We believe that this can only be good for football in Africa." MTN has already established strong links with the greatest achievers in African football through the MTN CAF Awards, the annual gala ceremony where the African Player of the Year, among other major awards, is announced. The 2005 MTN CAF Awards will be hosted in South Africa on 15 February. Becoming the new title sponsor of the African Cup of Nations and CAF Champions League means that MTN now has consolidated all of its football properties in Africa. CAF was founded in 1957 in Khartoum, Sudan, after efforts from the four African national federations then affiliated to FIFA: Egypt, Sudan, South Africa and Ethiopia. The initial planning came from a meeting held at the 30th FIFA Congress in June 1956 in Lisbon, Portugal, which proposed the establishment of a new FIFA-affiliated body, the Confederation of African Football. The founding assembly took place in Khartoum on 8 February in 1957. Abdel- Aziz Abdallah Salem was elected president with Abdel-Halim, Fred Fell and Ethiopia's Ydnekatchew Tessema as members. The post of general secretary went to Mohamed Youssef. Today, the Confederation of African Football takes care of African football business in 53 countries, making it the second largest continental confederation in FIFA.
