ESPN Africa, part of The Walt Disney Company, and the West African Football Union (WAFU) on Monday announced that Royal Air Maroc, the national airline carrier of Morocco, will become the exclusive airline sponsor of the WAFU Cup of Nations tournament taking place in Senegal from 28 September to 13 October in Thies.
Under the sponsorship agreement, Royal Air Maroc have committed to transporting several participating teams to the tournament from West Africa and Morocco.
Augustin Senghor, President of the WAFU Zone A, was upbeat about the partnership saying, “We are pleased that Royal Air Maroc have joined an expanding list of service providers who are aligning with the WAFU Cup of Nations 2019. There is no doubt that through this and other collaborative efforts, that the profile of the WAFU Cup of Nations will be elevated throughout the entire continent.”
As for Ahmed BENRBIA VP Sales Africa for Royal Air Maroc, this agreement show the will of their Air line company to join a continent wide sporting event and have a good visibility on ESPN (Entertainment Sport Programming Network) channels and local media of partiipating countries.
The Royal Air Maroc manager believes that the event will boost their ticket sales, and then encourage them to invest more in the developement of sport in Africa
Christine Service, Senior Vice President and Country Manager of The Walt Disney Company Africa comments; “We are extremely pleased to have Royal Air Maroc on the WAFU team with us, and playing a key role in transporting the national teams as well as fans to the this year’s WAFU Cup of Nations.”
Sixteen countries will take part in the tournament , including host country Senegal, Bénin, Burkina Faso, Cap-Verde, Ivory coast, Guinea, a Guinée Bissau, the Gambie, Ghana, Libéria, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigéria Togo and Maroc (guest) to replace Sierra Leone, that has been banned by FIFA.