26/05/25 (Agence Europe) – On Sunday 18 May, the European Commission and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) signed a three-year cooperation and sponsorship agreement. The EU will be an official partner of the Africa Cup of Nations (CAN), the Women’s CAN and CAF’s youth programmes. “This is about more than sport, it’s about education, visibility, and joint work on real development projects”, the European Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jozef Síkela, told X on Sunday 25 May. The CAF African Schools Championship is one of the major thrusts of this partnership, and should enable the competition to be extended to 33,000 schools across Africa, combining football, education and community involvement. In this way, the Commission hopes to raise the profile of EU investment via ‘Global Gateway’ throughout the continent. (BD)