WAFU secures $24m sponsorship
The biannual West African Football Union (WAFU) football competition was given a boost with the signing of a $24 million-sponsorship deal between WAFU and FOX Sports, a subsidiary of FOX Networks Group in Dakar, Senegal, last Friday.
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The 12-year-long partnership, which is aimed at reawakening WAFU as a body and its competitions, will witness an investment into infrastructure, training and development of youth, men and women’s football, as well as seminar and capacity-building programmes for referees and other stakeholders in football across the West African sub-region.
By the agreement, which was signed by the President of the Senegal Football Federation (SFF) and President of WAFU zone A, Augustin Senghor, and the President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Kwesi Nyantakyi, who doubles as the President of WAFU zone B, each zone will receive one million dollars every year for the next 12 years.
The Executive Vice-President of FOX Networks Group (Europe and Africa), Adam Theiler, told the Graphic Sports in an interview after the signing ceremony that his outfit was interested in the investment in local sports and, therefore, with the West African subregion being one of t best talents, it was just proper that they developed the sport in the region.
"One of our main objectives is to develop West Africa football and bring it to its fans in the sub- region and for that matter the African continent in its entirety.
“It is also to revitalise the vigour and the passion in a great footballing part of the world" he stressed and said, "we have like-minded people to work with and I think we all share the same vision."
Mr Theiler said if they were able to achieve what they intended, more football talents would be developed and also rise to the top not just on the continent but throughout the world.
He said it was the reason for the extension of the partnership to 12 years tofacilitate the building value over time and to see the players mature, particularly, the young ones, who would have opportunities to play to the highest level.
Explaining further, he said, "We will organise tournaments, specifically for each zone A and zone B of the WAFU,” stressing that the competitions would be held every two years within the zones.
"We want to bring the highest quality of WAFU tournament to the people by developing football fully," he added.
For the first time, the WAFU competition which will kick off in the summer of next year, would be broadcast to football fans by FOX Sports across the continent and the globe.
Mr Nyantakyi, who is the zone B President of WAFU, was hopeful that the competitions would be full of opportunities for a lot of players in the sub-region and, for that matter, Ghana.
He further expressed appreciation to FOX Sports for coming to support the union.
