- The impending announcement by SA Tourism to become an Official Sleeve Sponsor of Premier League Tottenham Hotspur has caused quite a stir in the country.
- The deal is worth £42.5 million (around R900 000 000), reportedly from the start of the 2023/24 Premier League season.
- But this deal is not unique to South Africa, as it has become popular in the last decade, with teams from all over Europe signing lucrative contracts with countries around the world.
The South African Department of Tourism (SAT) plans to enter into a sponsorship deal worth nearly R1 billion with Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur.
As reported by Daily Maverick, the proposed deal will be for three years, starting at the start of the 2023/24 Premier League season.
READ | Advertising, kit branding: Inside SA Tourism’s nearly R1bn Tottenham Hotspur sponsorship proposal
The timing of SA Tourism’s proposal to use taxpayer money for the sponsorship deal was met with public opposition in South Africa amid daily power cuts across the country, water shortages, security concerns and a government unstable.
Teams from across Europe have secured similar sponsorship deals over the past decade from nations around the world.
Here are five controversial endorsement deals that have gotten some attention:
Rwanda: Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain
In 2018, Arsenal partnered with the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) and, in 2021, they took that relationship to the next level.
The club signed a deal with RDB worth £10 million per season for their first sleeve sponsor, which has seen the club promote ‘Visit Rwanda’ on the club’s left sleeve.
Bukayo Saka celebrates with Arsenal’s Gabriel (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
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The announcement was met with strong criticism as the East African nation continues to be accused of various human rights abuses, Humans Rights Watch has revealed.
READ | Leeds United were SA’s first target before Tottenham as controversial deal debate continues
“It’s absolutely undefendable,” Zoe Gardner, who is an Arsenal fan and policy and advocacy manager at the Joint Council on Immigrant Welfare, told The Athletic. “We have Visit Rwanda on our team jerseys when we talk about sending refugees there for life. It’s just disgusting.”
A year after the deal, Rwanda’s tourism receipts “increased by 17% and tourists from Europe increased by 22%,” according to a report in The Mirror.
Meanwhile, Paris Saint-Germain also signed an excellent deal with Rwanda shortly after the Gunners and even sent players Julian Draxler, Thilo Kehrer, Keylor Navas and Sergio Ramos for a three-day visit.
Chad: FC Metz
One of the poorest African nations, the Republic of Chad, shocked the football world by shelling out a £10.7m fee in 2016 to become a shirt sponsor of Ligue 1 FC Metz for one season.
READ | DA opposes SA’s ‘crazy’ R1bn sponsorship deal and will send delegation to Tottenham for answers
Betel Miarom, Chad’s Minister of Sports at the time, declined to give the exact figure, but hoped that ties between Chad and France would improve thanks to the sponsorship. In addition, he stated that the agreement was negotiated through intermediary companies and third parties.
The large sum wreaked havoc as the head of Chad’s athletic association called the deal “a bad joke” and wasted money that could have been used for a greater cause.
At the time of the announcement, Chad ranked fourth lowest on the United Nations Human Development Index and has since fallen to second to last on that list of 191 countries.
Puerto Rico: Seville
La Liga outfit Sevilla also got into the action with a multi-million dollar sponsorship deal of their own.
The Spanish outfit cordoned off Puerto Rico that would see the club promote SeePuertoRico.com on their jerseys, training kits, inside the stadium, as well as on all digital platforms.
Nicolás Pareja of Sevilla FC celebrates after scoring during the UEFA Champions League match between Sevilla FC and Juventus at Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium on November 22, 2016 in Seville. (Photo by Aitor Alcalde/Getty Images)
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The 18-month deal faced criticism as it required the Puerto Rican government to allocate £6.2 million of taxpayer money per season during a difficult financial period for the country.
READ ALSO | SA Tourism defends Spurs’ ‘new and innovative’ R900m proposal after backlash: ‘We were ready for it’
The deal would last less than six months as the financial crisis took its toll and Puerto Rico informed Sevilla that they would not be able to pay that fee for two seasons.
Because of that, the SeePuertoRico.com tagline moved from the front of the game day kit to the back below the player’s kit number.
Qatar: Barcelona
In late 2010, La Liga giants Barcelona landed a lucrative shirt sponsorship with the Qatar Foundation.
At the time, the deal was the largest shirt sponsorship in world football worth £125 million over a five-year period.
Lionel Messi (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)
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The Qatar Foundation was founded by Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the former Emir of Qatar and his wife, Moza bint Nasser Al-Missned.
The controversy surrounding the club announcing the deal was that Barcelona had never had a shirt sponsor, but due to financial difficulties, which the club still faces today, they had to change their policy.
For years, Barcelona offered Unicef the lucrative position of having its name on the club’s jersey, something many considered noble, unlike any other popular team around the world.
Both fans of the club and the general soccer public expressed disappointment with the deal because of the Qatar Foundation’s connections to Hamas, a Palestinian political party, and Islamic scholar Yusuf Al Qaradawi, who made anti-Semitic comments.
