Borussia Dortmund fans are expected to protest against the club’s sponsorship deal with German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall.
ADVERTISEMENTSupporters of football club Borussia Dortmund are planning to start the Bundesliga season with major protests against its sponsorship deal with German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall.
“We won’t allow ourselves be hitched to your wagon,” the supporter association Südtribüne Dortmund said in a statement on behalf of more than 90 Dortmund fan groups on Wednesday.
“We firmly reject the idea that management and its committees at BVB have agreed to use Borussia Dortmund’s appeal to improve the public image of an arms company and throw their own values overboard in the process.”
Dortmund announced its signing of the three-year sponsorship deal with Düsseldorf-based Rheinmetall on 29 May, three days before the team played Real Madrid in the Champions League final.
Rheinmetall is the world’s largest maker of artillery ammunition and expects to make record group sales of around €10 billion ($11.1bn) this year. Trade has been helped by conflicts in Ukraine and elsewhere.
In February, it announced the construction of a new factory at its existing site in Unterluess in northern Germany, with annual production capacity for 200,000 artillery shells, 1,900 tons of explosives, and possibly rocket engines and warheads.
Founded in 1889 as “Rheinische Metallwaaren- und Maschinenfabrik Actiengesellschaft,” the company was one of Germany’s biggest armaments manufacturers during both World Wars.
News of Rheinmetall’s sponsorship with Dortmund came as “a bombshell,” according to Südtribüne, which said fan representatives were not consulted at any stage during the negotiations.
“The timing (of the announcement) suggests reactions to this controversial decision were deliberately intended to be overshadowed by reporting on the Champions League final,” the group said. “Negative effects on fans were consciously taken into account.”
Dortmund chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke previously defended the deal.
“When we see every day how freedom must be defended in Europe. We should deal with this new normality,” Watzke said.
