As the English Premier League’s 2026/27 season kicks off, thousands of football fans in Uganda, feel closer than ever, thanks to the fan first approach this time round. Launched at season opener game with a two days watch party in the Kampala, the new strategy will see fans actively popularizing the season through personal creativity.
With this new strategy, Fans believe the new partnership between the soft-drink giant and the world’s most-watched football league, will make the season memorable.
“This is great for all the football fans,” said Mario Otieno, Coca-Cola’s Senior Marketing Manager for Uganda, addressing the crowd on opening night. “For the first time, Coca-Cola has partnered with the English Premier League, and it’s bringing the football experience closer to all football fans in Uganda.”
Coca-Cola is the Premier League’s official soft-drink partner, multi-year deal that stretches from stadium hospitality in England all the way to street-level watch parties like that in Kampala this weekend.
“We know for a fact that Ugandans love football,” Otieno told the crowd. “For that love of football, Coca-Cola has identified that as a passion point that we can tap into.”
It’s also, he argued, a natural extension of habits fans already have. “Coca-Cola has been part of our tables since time immemorial. Whether we are enjoying a game of football at home, with our friends, at school, in our favorite hangout joints, Coca-Cola has always been part of the table.”
He emphasized that, the everyday presence, the bottle passed around during a match, the crate at a neighborhood bar on derby day, is what the company is leaning on as it builds out its Premier League activations across the country
Otieno added that the event doubled as a proof of concept: two nights of football, food, and live entertainment, opening with Arsenal’s season opener and following with a Manchester United fixture .
“It’s not just about the football,” Otieno said. “It’s a lineup of great entertainment, great DJs, a great food experience. “This is just the start of many activations and events that we’ll be curating for our Ugandan fans,” he added.
Not to make the matter in a market where sponsorship activity, feel like a one-time stunt. Coca-Cola’s pitch is different looks at a season-long relationship with fans, built around the rhythm of match weekends rather than a single splashy campaign.
Alongside the season long watch parties, a content creation challenge, open to any Ugandan fan 18 or older has been launched. For participation, on buys a Coca-Cola product i.e. Coke, Fanta, or Sprite, scan the QR code on the pack, and sign up to enter.
From there, it’s about creativity. Fans are encouraged to film and post content showing how they enjoy football or their meals with Coca-Cola, then rally friends and followers to engage with it. “The more viewership you get, the more money you unlock,” Otieno explained, with up to one million Ugandan shillings available to winners every month for the length of the campaign.
“So, you just need to create your fantastic content, post it on your socials, get your fans to interact with your content,” he said. “Anyone can be a millionaire every month.”
Beyond the cash incentive, the strategy promised additional prizes for fans engaging with the campaign more broadly, a combination expected to keep the energy from opening weekend alive all season long.
For ordinary supporters, the appeal is set to increase access to the game. A generation of Ugandan football fans that has followed the Premier League largely through television and phone screens now has a season-long calendar of in-person events to look forward to, DJs, food, big screens, and a shared space to watch matches that once felt worlds away.
Whether it’s the buzz of packed watch parties or the small thrill of scanning a bottle cap for a shot at real prize money, the strategy is betting that Ugandan fans’ long-standing love for both football and Coca-Cola products, can be turned into something more active: a season-long conversation between the company and the people who already had Coca-Cola on the table every match day, long before there was a sponsorship deal to announce.