English Premier League soccer giants Arsenal have announced that its multi-year sleeve partnership with the tourism board of Rwanda will end after the current 2025-26 campaign.
The agreement began in 2018 and was renewed in 2021 – meaning it will have run for eight years by the time it expires – and marked the first sleeve sponsorship deal in club history.
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Arsenal say that the move has come as a result of Visit Rwanda diversifying its international operations (the tourism brand recently entered the US through partnerships with the LA Rams and LA Clippers teams).
Visit Rwanda will remain tangentially connected to Arsenal, however, as the LA Rams are also owned by US businessman Stan Kroenke, who acquired Arsenal in 2018.
Richard Garlick, Arsenal’s recently-appointed chief executive, commented on the end of the agreement, saying: “Our first-ever sleeve partnership with Visit Rwanda has been a significant journey. Over many years, we’ve worked together to raise global awareness of Rwanda’s tourism and conservation efforts and built many new connections with our supporters across Africa.
"The commitment and support of Visit Rwanda throughout our partnership has played an important role in driving forward our ambitions – helping us invest in our long-term vision to win major trophies, in a financially sustainable way."
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By GlobalDataThis will be seen as vindication of those who protested against the deal and against the regime of Rwandan president Paul Kagame.
Since the start of the agreement, the partnership has been repeatedly criticized by human rights groups, with Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, the foreign minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), writing to Arsenal, for example, urging them to end their agreement in February after an invasion of DRC territory involving Rwanda-backed rebel group M23.
The invasion led the UK government to suspend aid to Rwanda in the same month over its support for M23. Rwandan officials have always publicly stated that any involvement they have in DR Congo is to protect their security interests.
Arsenal supporters have also expressed their displeasure over the club’s association with the brand on several occasions, with fan group Gunners For Peace staging a protest in April.
Jean-Guy Afrika, the chief executive of the Rwanda Development Board, has commented: “We look forward to continuing our relationship with the wider Kroenke Sports & Entertainment Group through our recent partnerships with the LA Rams and So-Fi Stadium in Los Angeles, and we remain a fully committed and engaged partner of Arsenal’s men’s and women’s teams for the remainder of the season.”
Visit Rwanda also has sponsorship deals in place with other European soccer clubs, including Germany’s Bayern Munich and Spain’s Atletico Madrid, while France’s PSG recently renewed their own agreement with the tourism brand, running through 2028.
However, earlier this year, Bayern significantly changed the nature of their relationship with the tourism body following criticism from fans, with the Visit Rwanda branding removed from most of the club’s platforms and physical assets as part of the pair's new deal.
