A few of the world’s top football clubs, including regional favourite Arsenal, are currently walking on egg shells as DR Congo officials, fans, and critics have expressed outrage over their ‘Visit Rwanda’ branding.
- Visit Rwanda is the state-run tourism promotion brand similar to Magical Kenya and Dubai Tourism.
- Rwanda, under the leadership of President Paul Kagame, has been accused of supporting the ongoing conflict in Eastern DRC by supporting M23 rebels who recently took control of the border town of Goma on Lake Kivu.
- Officials from the Democratic Republic of the Congo have called Arsenal, PSG, and Bayern-Munich to terminate their “blood stained” sponsorship deals.
Over the weekend BBC reported that, “DR Congo’s Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner has written to the owners of Arsenal and PSG and to Bayern president Herbert Hainer to ‘question the morality’ of the deals.”
The calls to end the sponsorships pose serious threats to the clubs’ reputations and could taint their brands if the PR storm continues.
What exactly does ‘Visit Rwanda’ sponsor?
The brand currently holds the first shirt sleeve sponsorship with Arsenal in addition to being the football club’s Official Tourism Partner. The partnership, which began in 2018, is reported to be worth £10M (~$12.3M or 1.6B KShs) per year.
This is not the first time the club has come under scrutiny for the sponsorship. In 2023, Arsenal refused to cancel the sponsorship after the UK Supreme Court made a landmark ruling on the country’s immigration policy which had proposed deporting illegal immigrants in the UK to Rwanda.
Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) renewed its partnership with Visit Rwanda in 2023 which has seen numerous players and management become ‘ambassadors’ for the nation in addition to sponsorship of the club’s training kit. According to PSG’s website, the partnership exists, “with the goal of showcasing the country as a top tourism and investment destination on the African continent, developing cultural, creative synergies, and promoting Rwandan coffee and tea.”
When PSG and Visit Rwanda first began collaborating, the sponsorship was estimated to be worth between €8 million ($8.2M or 1.0B KShs) and €10 million ($10.3M or 1.3B KShs).
The last major European club to enjoy funding from Rwanda is FC Bayern. Visit Rwanda is the Official Platinum Partner of FC Bayern and the club’s Official Tourism Partner for East, Central and Southern Africa until 2028.
What does this mean?
Clubs often come under fire for the actions of their advertisers and this poses a unique PR risk for many clubs.
In 2022, numerous teams globally including the NBA’s Miami Heat and Mercedes-Benz Formula 1 teams came under fire for taking brand sponsorships from FTX after the prolific cryptocurrency exchange suddenly went bankrupt. The media storm fuelled by FTX’s collapse saw brands quickly move to exit their agreements with the exchange accused of ‘old fashioned embezzlement’.
However, the ‘Visit Rwanda’ situation is different from FTX and the clubs in question have not yet responded to the DRC’s request.
Firstly, ‘Visit Rwanda’ has not gone bankrupt, in fact, clubs are being accused of something that many PR practitioners fear far more than bankruptcy – being accused of supporting a brand that is being associated with human rights violations.
Secondly, major clubs have gotten past PR storms before and some have even come out stronger. Sports clubs can be resilient given the dynamics of highly-emotive fan bases and revenue lines that value performance far more than morals.
An example of this includes Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea being rapidly sold in 2022 following sanctions being placed on the Russian-Israeli billionaire at the start of the Ukraine-Russia War.
Why does this even matter?
The ongoing media storm calling out Arsenal, PSG, and FC Bayern is a case study in associative risk. Every major media company has written an article about the DRC’s call to Visit Rwanda’s football clubs, raising the stakes for both the sponsors and the sports clubs.
Sports clubs are not the only ones subject to this criticism. Everyone from media companies, business conferences, schools, and even charities are subject to criticism based upon who their advertisers, sponsors, and partners are.
While Rwanda is a beautiful country full of beautiful people, the decisions of a few politicians have now come back to bite the brands of clubs located thousands of kilometers away. No one has complete foresight on what may happen with a brand, but this case goes to show why choosing the type of money you take is almost more important than the money itself.
Imagine a case where any one of these clubs loses a double digit percentage in jersey sales and game-day seats due to this PR crisis, it could end up costing the clubs more than they made from the sponsorship in the first place.
