Football and weapons? You might think that they don’t go together. The arms company Rheinmetall is nevertheless seeking proximity to a large German football club and is becoming a sponsor.
Just a few days before the Champions League final, Bundesliga football club Borussia Dortmund caused a stir with a sponsorship deal. The arms company Rheinmetall will support BVB for the next three years. This was announced by the Westphalian company and the weapons manufacturer.
A spokesperson for the Düsseldorf-based company declined to comment on the financial volume, but according to Handelsblatt, the figure is in the single-digit millions of euros per year. The partnership includes the use of high-reach advertising space, marketing rights, and event and hospitality offers in the stadium and on the club grounds. Rheinmetall will become BVB’s “Champion Partner,” meaning it will be a particularly important sponsor financially.
BVB prepares for criticism
BVB boss Hans-Joachim Watzke pointed out that security and defense are cornerstones of democracy. “That’s why we think it’s the right decision to focus very intensively on how we can protect these cornerstones.” They are looking forward to the collaboration and “as Borussia Dortmund, we are consciously opening ourselves up to a discourse.” Rheinmetall boss Armin Papperger was satisfied. “With BVB and Rheinmetall, we have found two partners who are a good fit with each other in terms of their ambitions, their attitudes and their backgrounds,” said the defense manager.
The discussion mentioned by Watzke could come at an inopportune time for Dortmund and distract from sporting issues ahead of the Champions League final on Saturday against Real Madrid. “There is only one topic left now, and that is this final,” BVB sports director Sebastian Kehl said on Tuesday: “I would like us to concentrate on this game.”
For the first time, a weapons company sponsors a Bundesliga football team
It is probably the first time that an arms company has sponsored a football club – the Federal Association of the German Security and Defense Industry (BDSV) is not aware of any comparable case. The association welcomed the move. “Sponsorship is a way of giving a broad section of the population the feeling that weapons for maintaining our security and peace are not something ‘unappetizing’, but are simply a normal part of our social reality if we want to live in peace and freedom,” said BDSV General Manager Hans Christoph Atzpodien.
Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck also commented on the deal. “The fact that Rheinmetall is now sponsoring a football club is indeed unusual, but it shows where we stand,” said the Green Party politician in Berlin. We are in constant contact with Rheinmetall so that the company produces even more ammunition to support Ukraine, said the minister, who is also responsible for arms exports.
“We know and unfortunately have to admit that we are in a different, more threatening world.” For this reason, “the practiced and understandable restraint” in public dealings with the arms industry is no longer tenable and correct, said Habeck. “In this respect, this sponsorship certainly reflects the reality of the turning point to some extent.” After the Russian attack on Ukraine, the German government declared a “turning point” and provided 100 billion euros to get the Bundeswehr back on track. Rheinmetall is also benefiting from this package.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior, which is responsible for sports, did not want to comment on the Rheinmetall-BVB deal. As a matter of principle, the ministry does not comment on sponsorship agreements between sports clubs, said a ministry spokesman.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, state spokesman Sascha Wagner of the Left Party was fiercely critical. The connection was “a bad foul play,” said Wagner: “The arms company lives from the business of death.” North Rhine-Westphalia’s Economics Minister Mona Neubaur of the Green Party, however, explained in response to a request from the German Press Agency that “the public perception of the company has changed in the past two years – including for me personally.” We need “companies like Rheinmetall to be able to defend our democracy and our freedom in an emergency. And yet the arms industry is not an industry like any other. I can therefore understand that many fans view the sponsorship with mixed feelings.”
Criticism from fans and pacifists
The reaction from some football fans and other parts of society was negative. The German Peace Society – United War Resisters launched an online petition calling on BVB to back down and issuing a “red card for the advertising deal”. “A weapons manufacturer as a sponsor does not fit with the values that BVB – and football as a whole – represents,” said the pacifists.
On “X” (formerly Twitter), numerous users expressed their displeasure – for many, the logo of a weapons company has no place on advertising banners at the edge of the pitch. There was also ironic and biting criticism: In a photo montage, a miniature tank could be seen driving onto the edge of the pitch and bringing the referee a football. The satirical party Die Partei also published a photo montage showing a tank on a football pitch, with the headline: “BVB – we don’t just score goals”.
Rheinmetall already active as a sports sponsor
Sponsoring a sports club is not new territory for the defense company, which also operates as an automotive supplier – Rheinmetall is already a sponsor of the handball club Bergischer HC from Solingen, not far from Düsseldorf. But with the football club and Champions League finalist BVB, Rheinmetall’s sports sponsorship is reaching a different level.
Germany’s largest arms company, with around 30,000 employees, is on a growth path; after the Russian attack on Ukraine, demand for ammunition, tanks and anti-aircraft guns skyrocketed. Since the beginning of 2022, the order backlog has risen by around 10 billion euros to 24 billion euros, and sales are expected to reach 10 billion euros this year. This would be almost twice as high as in 2021, i.e. before the Ukraine war (5.7 billion euros). The share price has more than quintupled since February 2022. Rheinmetall is important in the defense of Ukraine; the company supplies military goods on a large scale and is paid for this by the federal government.
Source: Stern
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