Rheinmetall sponsorship gnaws away at Borussia Dortmund fans

German football club Borussia Dortmund signed a three-year sponsorship deal with leading German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall in May, but the contract has proved controversial with club members now voting against it. 

The Düsseldorf-based firm, the fifth-largest weapons manufacturer in Europe, became a "Champion Partner" of the Bundesliga club in a deal worth between €7 and €9 million per year.

Rheinmetall's logo is visible on advertising boards and other surfaces at locations such as Dortmund's 83,000-capacity Westfalenstadion, its Brackel training ground and other hospitality and marketing events. The deal started with the club's preparations for the prestigious Champions League final which they ultimately lost to Real Madrid.

The name, however, does not feature on the players' kits or training gear.

"Security and defense are elementary pillars of our democracy, so we think it's the right decision to see how we can protect these pillars," Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke said in a club statement entitled "taking responsibility" when the deal was announced.

Rheinmetall board chairman Armin Papperger said that his company and Borussia Dortmund are "well matched due to their ambitions, attitude and heritage."

He said that "BVB (Dortmund) is a club from the heart of North Rhine-Westphalia which strives more than any other for top performance and international success," and that Rheinmetall is "deeply rooted in the Rhine-Ruhr region."

Dortmund and Rheinmetall: a controversial partnership

Rheinmetall's role as a leading player in the arms manufacturing industry is seen as highly controversial among sections of Borussia Dortmund's 200,000 members and wider fanbase.

At November's annual general meeting, 556 of 855 members present voted against the deal in a non-binding vote. There were 247 votes in favour, with 52 abstentions. 

Watzke hinted he wanted a full vote of the membership to get a complete picture of the strength of feeling. 

In November 2022, the club drew up and published a code of ethics in which it committed itself to "a society without racism, antisemitism, homophobia, sexism, violence and discrimination."

Particularly the penultimate point led to criticism from some quarters given the prominent role of Rheinmetall in German arms exports, not only in the modern day but also historically during the Second World War.

"Such a company wants to be mentioned not only in the context of weapons which injure and kill people, but also with more positive things," Mathias John, Amnesty Germany's arms industry expert, told DW. "Football and sport are positive topics. People associate them with happiness and fair competition, and Rheinmetall wants a piece of that."

Dortmund's most prominent German-speaking fan blog, schwartzgelb.de, criticized the club for both its reasoning behind the deal and the timing of its announcement.

"Just be honest. Say Rheinmetall wants to improve its image and BVB wants the money, and that you have decided the company corresponds to the club’s values," the website wrote. "But save us the statesman-like chatter."

'A dangerous, more-threatening world'

According to German football magazine Kicker, the club consulted with figures from German politics, economics and civil society as well as with representatives of its own fanbase before agreeing the deal.

"Especially today, as we experience every day how freedom must be defended in Europe, we have to deal with this new reality," said CEO Watzke. "We're looking forward to the partnership with Rheinmetall and are open to discussions."

There are, however, flaws in the club's argument according to Mathias John, as Rheinmetall don't only supply weapons for German defense purposes, but also through its subsidiaries based in other countries, often avoiding the German government’s rather strict arms export policies.

"That’s where the more critical customers come in," explains John. "Customers who wouldn't necessarily be able to import arms from Germany directly. It's also where the risk comes in — that these weapons may contribute to human rights violations and break international humanitarian law."

In 2016, weapons used by a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen resulted in six members of the Husni family being killed in an attack called "unlawful" by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR). According to the organization, bomb remnants found at the site of the attack confirmed that they were manufactured by Rheinmetall’s subsidiary RWM Italia.

The German government also recently approved a delivery of Rheinmetall ammunition to Israel in the country’s war in Gaza, a fact which many Dortmund fans cited in their criticism of the deal.

German Economy Minister and Deputy Chancellor Robert Habeck told reporters in Berlin that "Rheinmetall sponsoring a football club is indeed unusual," but said it also reflected the current state of affairs.

"We are in permanent contact with companies such as Rheinmetall, [encouraging them] to produce more munitions to support Ukraine," he said. "Unfortunately, we have to accept that we are living in a different, more threatening world."

mf/ft/msh/mlm (dpa, Reuters, DW)

This article was originally written in May and updated to include the latest fan opposition