Rebel attacks, sub-imperialism, and football shirt sponsorship deals
European clubs are caught in the cross hairs of Rwandan backed violence in DR Congo
Following the capture of Goma - the DR Congo’s biggest eastern city - by M23 rebels, the country’s foreign minister (Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner) has reportedly written to the owners of European football clubs Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint Germain.
Each of the clubs is sponsored by the Visit Rwanda tourism campaign, in what some label as ‘blood stained’ deals.
So far this year, it is estimated that 400,000 people have been displaced by the M23, a group widely believed to be under the de facto control of Rwanda’s government.
Kayikwamba Wagner has apparently called the deals immoral.
It is interesting that recent developments have been reported by sports news services, when in fact they are a matter of geopolitical economy.
Furthermore, the sponsorships are not transactional – as with, say, a burger and fries or car company shirt deal – they are deeply embedded in a global power network of different, sometimes competing, interests.
For instance, PSG is owned by Qatar Sports Investments, an entity with close links to the country’s government.
While the Visit Rwanda logo appears on one part of PSG’s shirts, the club’s front of shirt deal is with Qatar Airways, a state-owned airline.
It is believed that QA is closing in on the acquisition of a 49% stake in Air Rwanda, another 100% state owned airline.
QA also owns a 60% stake in Kigali airport, Rwanda’s biggest such facility, which is currently being redeveloped.
Meantime, government in Doha has been engaged in state diplomacy with the central African nation, an outcome of the Gulf country’s food security needs and quest for natural resource access.
Whatever the labelling and morals of what is happening in DR Congo, there are bigger issues at play than what appears on the shirts of European football clubs.
Calling out a deal such as Visit Rwanda’s is more about creating noise around football in pursuit of a cause than it can ever be about the realistic chance of deal termination.
Over at Arsenal, which has its own Gulf state owned airline shirt sponsorship (Emirates Airline), the situation is equally as complicated.
The United Arab Emirates is engaged in trade with Rwanda that is being widely heralded and is fast approaching $2 billion.
Yet concerns are growing that the UAE has become a sub-imperialist power in Africa, including in Rwanda and DR Congo.
Some observers believe this is part of a battle for influence and opportunity being fought between Gulf nations in Africa - not just the UAE and Qatar, but also Saudi Arabia (and, for that matter, China).
Kayikwamba Wagner’s deployment of football and sponsorship as a means through which to globally signal concerns about disturbing incidents, is neither about football nor about sponsorship - there are much bigger and more important things at stake.
Image source: https://x.com/verlies999/status/1514642571028533250/photo/1