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Dortmund, Germany Borussia Dortmund Supporters are planning to launch Bundesliga This season the club has been hit with an outcry over its sponsorship deal with German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall.
“We will not allow ourselves to be put in your trap,” Dortmund fans’ association “South Tribune” said in a statement on Wednesday on behalf of more than 90 Dortmund fan groups.
“We firmly object to the fact that Dortmund management and its committee agreed to use Dortmund’s demands to improve the public image of an arms company and abandoned their own values in the process.”
Dortmund announces three-year sponsorship deal On May 29, the team played against Düsseldorf-based Rheinmetall, three days before the match. real Madrid In the Champions League final.
Rheinmetall, the world’s largest maker of artillery ammunition, expects group sales to hit a record 10 billion euros ($11.1 billion) this year. Conflicts in Ukraine and elsewhere have boosted trade.
In February, the company announced it would build a new plant at its existing site in Unterluss, northern Germany, with an annual capacity of 200,000 artillery shells, 1,900 tons of explosives, and possibly rocket motors and warheads.
Founded in 1889 as Rheinmetall und Maschinenfabrik, the company was one of Germany’s largest armament manufacturers during the two world wars, during which it used forced labor.
The South Tribune reported that the news of Rheinmetall sponsoring Dortmund was “shocking” and said that the opinions of fan representatives were not sought at any stage of the negotiations.
“The timing (of the announcement) suggests that the reaction to this controversial decision was deliberately overshadowed by coverage of the Champions League final,” the group said. “The negative impact on fans was deliberately taken into account.”
The Southern Tribune calls on all fans watching Dortmund’s home game against Frankfurt to express their opposition to the deal.
“Please have signs and/or banners ready to voice your criticism at the start of the second half,” the South Tribune said.
Organisers of a petition opposing the deal said they would stage a protest outside the stadium with a tank decorated with Dortmund’s colours and an activist dressed as Rheinmetall Chief Executive Armin Papager. They said they would display banners and hand out leaflets around the stadium.
Dortmund chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke has previously defended the deal.
“We see every day how Europe must defend freedom. We should deal with this new normal,” Watzke said.
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