BERLIN (AP) — Bayern Munich flew to Qatar for their winter training camp on Friday amid uncertainty over the club’s controversial sponsorship deal with the Persian Gulf country.
State-owned Qatar Airways’ lucrative advertising deal is due to expire at the end of the season and the Bavarian powerhouse is being pressured by its own fans not to extend it. Many Bayern supporters feel it is damaging to the club’s reputation to receive money from a country associated with human rights abuses.
The issue has long been a source of controversy between Bayern and their own fans., who have consistently campaigned against the sponsorship deal. Members of the Bayern ultra-fan groups Red Pride and Club de Munich. No. 12, banners displayed at games condemning what they say is the “sports laundering” of human rights abuses in Qatar through Bayern’s advertising for the emirate.
“We continue to defend our position that we are absolutely against a sponsorship deal extension,” Alexander Salzweger of the No. 12 Club told The Associated Press this week. “Unlike previous years, it is no longer a question of an early termination, which would have been more than complicated, but of not extending the sponsorship.”
Bayern did not respond to requests for comment.
Fans previously called on Bayern to end the sponsorship deal prematurely. The club’s 2021 general meeting of shareholders ended in tumult and anger when members booed club directors for refusing to discuss the issue.
Bayern president Herbert Hainer apologized at the next general meeting of shareholders last November when he said he made “mistakes” by not allowing a discussion at the previous meeting.
Club No. 12 organized a public meeting in Munich in 2020 titled “Qatar, human rights and FC Bayern” with two migrant workers who talked about their experiences building World Cup stadiums. Bayern were invited to send a representative but did not reply to the organizers.
The team plays Qatar Airways on the sleeves of the players’ jerseys. The club receives 10 million euros ($10.5 million) a year for its five-year contract with the Qatari airline. That deal was signed in 2018, replacing Bayern’s previous sponsorship deal with Doha airport.
The club has been holding mid-season training camps in the Persian Gulf country since 2011, although plans to train there in 2022 and 2021 have been scrapped due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Bayern chief executive Oliver Kahn said in November that the club was holding off on its decision. on whether to extend its deal with Qatar Airways.
“We will continue to discuss the issue intensively after the World Cup and find a solution for FC Bayern,” Kahn told members at the AGM.
There has been no news on the matter from the club since then.
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