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Arsenal will end its eight-year sponsorship with Rwanda’s tourism board next year, the Premier League soccer team said Wednesday.
The board’s tourism arm, Visit Rwanda, was seen on the sleeves of Arsenal’s jerseys throughout the deal, which started in 2018 and was renewed in 2021.
In October, The Athletic reported the two sides were in negotiations for another extension, despite the blowback the club received due to the country’s track record of human rights issues.
Arsenal’s women’s team also had a relationship with Rwanda, including a team visit in 2022, and coaching clinics in the country. The women’s team will also drop Rwanda from its jerseys.
In a statement, Arsenal said the change was in part driven by Rwanda’s “broader strategy to diversify its global sports partnerships and expand into new markets that support the next phase of its tourism and investment ambitions.”
Rwanda is led by President Paul Kagame, a sports fan who roots for Arsenal and the Golden State Warriors and has teased the idea of his country hosting an NBA game to commissioner Adam Silver.
Kagame’s government has been accused of several human-rights abuses in recent years, including killing political opponents and backing the use of child soldiers in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, among other abuses, according to the U.S. State Department.
“This is the same regime that’s funding a brutal militia committing atrocities against thousands of innocent victims in Eastern Congo,” Arsenal fan group Gunners For Peace posted on its website about Kagame.
Aside from Arsenal, the Rwandan Development Board also has sponsorship agreements with the NFL’s Rams, NBA’s Clippers, and European soccer teams Atlético de Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain, among others. The deals for the two Los Angeles franchises were announced in September and include advertising at their home venues. Rwanda previously had a sponsorship deal with German soccer powerhouse Bayern Munich, but the club ended it in August amid fan pressure from fans.
The Rams and Arsenal are both owned by the Kroenke family.
A spokeswoman for the Rams said the team’s deal is separate from Arsenal’s despite the shared ownership and is still ongoing. The Clippers deal is active, too, as Visit Rwanda is on team jerseys this season.
“We look forward to continuing our relationship with the wider Kroenke Sports & Entertainment Group through our recent partnerships with the LA Rams and So-Fi Stadium in Los Angeles, and we remain a fully committed and engaged partner of Arsenal’s men’s and women’s teams for the remainder of the season,” Jean-Guy Afrika, CEO of the Rwanda Development Board, said in Arsenal’s release. “We wish them all the very best in their continuing quest for even more sporting success in the months ahead.”
The Rwanda deal paid Arsenal $13.4 million for the 2023–24 season, according to the club’s financial report.
The NBA is indirectly in business with Rwanda through the Basketball Africa League it runs with FIBA; Rwanda pays the league $6 million to $7 million annually to put Visit Rwanda on every BAL team’s jersey.
“This is a Big Club decision,” Gunners for Peace said in a statement after the news broke Wednesday. “We all know that money talks, but if fans get together and speak louder then they have to listen. It shows that Arsenal Football Club still has the class and the values to do the right thing. By ditching this deal the gunners have taken a step towards peace.”
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