By Paul Nicholson and Samindra Kunti
January 4 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has launched into the new year with a major design rebrand of its major national team and club competitions, following up on the announcement at the end of last year of the alignment of its key national team competitions under the Asian Cup naming convention.
The new visual identities released include logo designs for the confederation’s flagship national team competitions – Asian Cup, Women’s Asian Cup, AFC U23 Asian Cup – as well as its core club championships, the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup.
The AFC will also introduce a dedicated logo mark for the final round of 2022 World Cup qualifiers, which get under way in the second half of 2021.
The rebranding gives the competition logos a more modern and progressive look and its rollout reflects both the confidence that exists in the Asian football commercial propositions, as well as making a statement of intent for the expansion of the confederation’s competition properties.
As the AFC has increased the participation of its member nations – particularly in terms of the numbers of nations in its major finals competitions like the Asian Cup – so it has experienced an uplift in media numbers and engagement across the region. The addition of more national teams at major events has exponentially increased exposure of the competitions in the region and the AFC as the governing body.
The design refresh is intended to robustly accompany that increased profile. It is expected that the new and complimentary designs will be rolled out for the AFC’s U17, U20, Futsal and Beach Soccer competitions.
AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa added his voice to the launchsaying: “We are delighted to start the new year with all-new AFC national team and club competition brands. The AFC strives to make its competitions even more relevant for its diverse fanbase while showcasing their unique reputation as Asia’s most popular football events. I am convinced the new visual identities will resonate strongly across Asia and worldwide, and I am looking forward to the new look and feel across social media and TV broadcast.”
The new competition identities will used at venues and in broadcast idents, as well as being rolled out across the AFC’s social media profiles – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Weibo, WeChat, Toutiao, Douyin, LINE, VKontakte and Telegram.
In a statement the AFC said: “The rebranding was managed together with the AFC’s exclusive commercial partner FMA over a 15-month period and was informed by deep stakeholder collaboration and extensive consumer research across Asia. This process ultimately informed the unique character and design of the new competition brands.”
Patrick Murphy, Board Member and CEO at FMA, described the rebranding as major milestone as the AFC moves into a new era for its competitions and commercial partners.
“Today is an important day from various perspectives: fans of Asian football can enjoy and experience the new AFC competition brands, while sponsors and broadcast partners, as well as clubs and Member Associations will start to actively use the exciting new visual identities to promote AFC competitions to their audiences,” said Murphy.
Contact the writers of this story at moc.l1731810661labto1731810661ofdlr1731810661owedi1731810661sni@n1731810661osloh1731810661cin.l1731810661uap1731810661, or Samindra Kunti at moc.l1731810661labto1731810661ofdlr1731810661owedi1731810661sni@o1731810661fni1731810661
