Bayern Munich is moving from ‘Visit Rwanda’ Sponsoring after fankritics

Bayern Munich indicated on Friday that it will reduce the branding of «Visit Rwanda», because it moves «Away from a commercial sponsorship» with the African nation that is confronted with a recoil about alleged support for reburious Congo.

Bayern rejected accusations of «Sportswashing» when it signed a five-year Rwanda deal in 2023. It included advertisements in the stadium and what Bayern events called «to promote tourism and investment options in Rwanda.»

At the time it replaced a controversial sponsorship agreement with Qatar. Rwanda has similar sponsorship with European football giants such as Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal and Atletico Madrid.

Some Bayern fans showed a large banner during a match in February against the deal, in the midst of accusations of the United Nations that Rwanda has supported rebels in the neighboring Congo.

Now the German football champion says that it has reached a new deal with Rwanda who changes the existing sponsorship agreement into a three-year agreement aimed at developing young football players at a Bayern-Liedded Academy in the country.

«In constructive conversations about our future direction, we agree that a very special part of our relationship with (the Rwanda Development Board) was the development flow of our work in Kigali via the FC Bayern Academy,» said Bayern Chief Executive Jan-Christian Dreesen in a statement.

«That is why we transform our commercial partnership into a talent program and expand the FC Bayern Academy into (Rwanda’s capital) Kigali together with the RDB and both a football and social initiative. This remains perfectly tailored to our strategic objective of developing play talent in Africa.»

Bayern did not indicate how quickly the branding of «Visit Rwanda» would drop as part of the move, which is described as a transition. From Friday afternoon local time, the branding was still displayed under a part of the Bayern website -noting club sponsors and partners.

The Chief Executive of the RDB, Jean-Guy Africa, was quoted by Bayern as the changes in the partnership aimed at ‘accelerating sport development’, and added: «This continuous partnership with FC Bayern helps to ensure that talent development is anchored in our widdest vision, investing, Rwosting, Rwosting, Rwosting, Rwosting, Rwanding, Rwanding, Rwanding and Posing Rwanding, Rwanding, Rwanding, Rwanding, Rwanding and Rwosting, Rwanding and Rwanding, Rwanding and Rwosting, Rwanding and Rwanding, Rwanding, Rwanding, Rwanding and Rwanding, Rwanding, Rwanding and Rwanding, Rwanding, Rwanding and Rwanding, Rwanding and Rwanding, Rwanding and Rwanding, Rwanding and Rwanding, Rwanding, Rwanding and Rwanding. High-Performance Sport. «

The presence of Rwanda in European football has grown steadily since 2018, when it first worked with Arsenal to place the branding of the «Visit Rwanda» on the shirt sleeves of the London Club.

An agreement with PSG was signed in 2019 and renewed in April this year. It treats branding in the stadium and included sponsorship of shirt sleeves on the Club World Cup. A three -year -old deal for sponsor Atletico was agreed in April, including branding about training and warming shirts.

Rwanda is accused of supporting the M23 rebel group, the most powerful of more than 100 armed groups that compete for dominance in mineral eastern Congo just across the border with Rwanda. Rwanda is also accused of operating the minerals of Eastern Congo, used in smartphones, advanced fighter jets and much more.

However, Rwandan authorities claim that some of those who participated in the Rwandan genocide of 1994 who fled in Congo and work with or are protected by the Congolese army. They have denied the involvement in the mineral sector of Congo and said that all security campaigns undertaken are to protect its territory.