Borussia Dortmund fans have staged a protest against the football team’s new sponsor, the military-industrial conglomerate Rheinmetall, Spiegel magazine reported.
At the end of May, one of Germany’s largest manufacturers of military equipment signed a three-year sponsorship deal with Dortmund’s football team. The terms of the multi-million euro contract with Rheinmetall did not include the placement of the defence logo on the uniforms of Borussia players. However, fans have widely criticised the club’s first deal with a weapons manufacturer in German football, the vice-chancellor said. Robert Habeckbecame further “evidence of a change of era” in Germany.
In protest, Dortmund fans brought a cardboard model of a tank and a papier-mâché Rheinmetall head to their home game against Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday. Armin Papergeras well as dozens of posters. On the tank’s turret, fans placed an inscription criticising in particular the supply of military equipment to Qatar by the Rheinmetall consortium.
“We believe that an arms company should not be a sponsor of a football club.” — said the president of the peace organization “German Peace Society” in an interview with the newspaper Spiegel. Michael Schulze von Glasser.
“Several years ago, Dortmund adopted a code of core values that is based on the principle of non-violence. Tanks are pure violence. Rheinmetall is a tank manufacturer. And it wants to convince people in the stadium that tanks and guns are good. And we don’t like that. Of course, we hope that the club will cancel this agreement.” – continued Schulze von Glasser.
In addition to the mock-ups and posters ridiculing Rheinmetall, fans also staged a protest at the start of the second half of the football match, chanting slogans denouncing the high-profile sponsorship deal.
