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By Tony Attwood
There’s quite a bit of fuss going on at the moment about the “Visisit Rwanda” slogan on Arsenal’s shirts. As the Telegraph puts it, the “Deal has become impossible to justify as violence linked to Rwanda-backed group claims thousands of lives in DR Congo”.
Of course, as we know, sponsorship often causes problems, not least when it was decided that having tobacco linked with football was not a good idea. Indeed we are told that “Austria Vienna for example had a sponsorship deal with an Austrian tobacco company ‘Austria Tabak’ right up to 2004. And let’s not forget the UK ban on cigarette advertising didn’t come in until February 2003.
But the world changes and we do get more aware that some things are just not on. Including the promotion of Rwanda by Arsenal. and indeed the Emirates airline who have the naming rights on the Arsenal Stadium for another three years (although we try never to use the official name on this site).
There is no doubt that the United Arab Emirates is an authoritarian state with a terrible human rights record, that uses football to cover its image. It has been described by Professor Jim Krane, who is something of an expert on such matters, as a “tribal autocracy.”
But it seems Arsenal don’t mind too much who they associate themselves with, as long as the money comes rolling in. And of course, newspapers love to point the finger at Arsenal, as with the Telegraph saying today that “Arsenal’s Visit Rwanda sponsorship is stain on club’s name. Deal has become impossible to justify as violence linked to Rwanda-backed group claims thousands of lives in DR Congo.”
Being very much a supporter of democratic institutions rather than dictatorships, (although of course also being very aware that democracies can themselves do some pretty appalling things too) I’ve continued (at least most of the time; hopefully all of the time) to call the ground, “Arsenal Stadium” rather than anything else. I doubt that very many readers have noticed, but it’s just a little quirk of mine; I don’t use the name “Emirates” in anything, except when pointing out that the UAE is a pretty nasty dictatorship. As the New York Times said of it back in 2017, “There are no democratically elected institutions, and there is no formal commitment to free speech”. But they finance our club.
And yes I must admit, quite a few years ago I did fly on that state’s airline to go and see one of my daughters because I couldn’t find a ticket I could afford on any other airline for that particular trip on that particular date, but only that once. (And anyway, it was a pretty grotty experience).
So all things considered I wish Arsenal didn’t have this link and this sponsorship especially as “Last Sunday, the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States released a joint statement on the escalation of violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The G7 ministers united to “strongly condemn” what they describe as the “Rwanda-backed M23 offensive” in the region.”
But that’s all too depressing really, so it is rather nice to take a look at Tottenham, as indeed we have been doing of late, and consider such headlines as that in the Telegraph which runs the tale, “Jamie Carragher: Accrington Stanley gave Liverpool more trouble than Spurs – stats show he is right.”
That was all about what was called the “meek surrender in League Cup semi-final,” with the question raised ‘When do Tottenham ever win a big game?’ Of course, it is just one turnip talking about a field of cabbages, but even so, it gave me a smile.
Meanwhile, back with the nasty news, reports are emerging that Fifa is a major cause of global warming as new report shows football creates as much global warming as Austria, with “Greenhouse gas emissions generated by the global soccer industry are 64 million to 66 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions equivalent (tCO2e) per year.”
In fact “Excluding missions derived from sponsorship, total carbon footprint of soccer’s activities are 13 million to 15 million tCO2e per year.” And it is a bit funny how this sort of news doesn’t normally eke out.
Yet the report from the New Weather Institute from Scientists for Global Responsibility reveals that football’s sponsorship deals are primarily with “heavily polluting companies”.
Maybe no one else feels that is worrying, and it is just me. After all, there’s never really anything about this in the mass media while there is an awful lot about transfers that will never happen. Why is that? Do these heavily polluting sponsors also drop a few quid to the media to lay off the pollution subject? (Of course I have no evidence that is true – it’s just mere speculation on my part._
Rwanda hmmm morally wrong . Who makes these judgement calls? Could it be certain unscrupulous clubs highlight this because only last week we were all made aware that Arsenal have risen a few places in Forbes’ rich list?
Purely business eh ? Or something else akin to that old phrase ‘Pot calling kettle black’ ?
Clerkenwell Gunner
I must admit I was thinking something along the same lines.
Isn’t it funny how all things (or should I say all money?) ‘oil’ based is embraced like a long lost aunt with a million in the bank and not long to live!!!
Everyone passes the ‘right and proper’ test every time. Yippeee, more cash in PL and all who sail in her’s pockets.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not overly enamoured with Arsenal having anything to do with Rwanda or The Emirates, but neither am I with numerous other Regimes, States or Countries around the Globe.
The problem is if you took the moral high ground on everything you disapproved of you’d never eat, wear clothes, use phones, fly. The list goes on and on.
This kind of thing is pick and chose.
We have to fly less say all the Moral preachers who fly around the World to tell us.
Nope, I don’t like it. I hope we find ‘better’ sponsors.
Do I think this is people with a moral compass telling us this?
Give it a rest. It’s the media FFS!!!! When did they ever have a moral compass??
It’s yet again because it’s Arsenal. We aren’t playing at the moment so they have to find something else to scream about.
You call it ‘fuss’. Not a serious word me thinks,