Germany sees major supermarket withdraw sponsorship because team dropped OneLove armbands at World Cup | world news


A major supermarket chain has scrapped its ad campaign with the German Football Association after the men’s national soccer team dropped plans to wear OneLove armbands at the World Cup.

Rewe’s decision follows the decision by Germany and five other countries, including England and Wales, to announce that their team captains would not wear the multi-coloured armbands because FIFA had told them that players who do could be booked.

Hours after the announcement of the channel, whose group-wide sales amount to €76.5bn (£66bn), fellow sponsor Deutsche Telekom said it would also planned discussions with the German Football Association on this subject.

Rewe Group chief executive Lionel Souque said in a statement: “We stand for diversity – and football is also diversity. We live this position and we stand for it.

“FIFA’s outrageous attitude is absolutely unacceptable.”

The associations of Germany, England, Wales, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Denmark had said their team captains would wear the armband in Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal.

Image:
Germany goalkeeper and captain Manuel Neuer was among the players who had to wear the garment. Photo: AP

But they released a joint statement on Monday saying FIFA’s warning about “sporting sanctions” prompted them to back down.

While FIFA have been condemned for their stance, football associations have also been criticized for failing to uphold their principles when faced with the prospect of yellow cards as punishment.

The German association said on Tuesday it faced “extreme blackmail” and had abandoned plans to wear the armband to players because it was unfair for them to bear the consequences.

Rewe said he had already informed the German Football Association in October that he did not want to continue his partnership, but after the armband decision he clearly wanted to distance himself from FIFA’s position and waive its publicity rights under the sponsorship agreement.

Rewe said it would start distributing free World Cup-themed sticker albums available in its stores and donate proceeds from those already sold.

A Deutsche Telekom spokesman said he wanted to understand the reasoning behind the decision: “We will discuss the whole matter with the DFB soon.”

On Sunday, the Sun newspaper reported that English sponsor Lucozade was stripping its entire World Cup brand in a snub in Qatar.

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