Rewe drops ads with German soccer association over armbands row

(Adds context on Rewe, additional comments) BERLIN, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Major grocery chain Rewe has scrapped its advertising campaign with the German Football Association after soccer's global governing body cracked down on players wearing 'OneLove' armbands in support of diversity at the Qatar World Cup. The move by Rewe, one of Germany's biggest supermarket chains with group-wide sales of 76.5 billion euros ($78.5 billion), makes it the first sponsor to take action after FIFA threatened to issue yellow cards to any player wearing the multi-coloured armband at the World Cup. "We stand up for diversity - and football is also diversity.

(Adds context on Rewe, additional comments) BERLIN, Nov 22 (Reuters) -

Major grocery chain Rewe has scrapped its advertising campaign with the German Football Association after soccer's global governing body cracked down on players wearing 'OneLove' armbands in support of diversity at the Qatar World Cup. The move by Rewe, one of Germany's biggest supermarket chains with group-wide sales of 76.5 billion euros ($78.5 billion), makes it the first sponsor to take action after FIFA threatened to issue yellow cards to any player wearing the multi-coloured armband at the World Cup.

"We stand up for diversity - and football is also diversity. We live this position and we defend it," said Rewe Group chief executive Lionel Souque. "FIFA's scandalous attitude is absolutely unacceptable."

Several soccer associations had said their team captains would wear the armband in Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal. But the associations from Germany, England, Wales, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Denmark said on Monday they would drop those plans following FIFA's warning. The German Football Association said on Tuesday associations backing the armband were faced with "extreme blackmail", and it had dropped plans for players to wear it because it was unfair for them to shoulder the consequences.

Rewe said it had already informed the German Football Association in October it did not want to continue their partnership, but after the armband decision it wanted to clearly distance itself from FIFA's position and waive its advertising rights under the sponsorship agreement. Rewe said it would start giving away World Cup-themed sticker albums available at its stores for free and donate proceeds from those already sold.

On Sunday, the Sun newspaper reported that drinks maker and England sponsor Lucozade has pulled all its branding from the World Cup in a snub to Qatar. FIFA said on Monday it had brought forward its own "No Discrimination" campaign from the planned quarter-finals stage so all 32 team captains would have the opportunity to wear its own armband during the tournament.

The German Football Association (DFB) is the world's largest, with more than seven million active members. Other DFB partners include Volkswagen, Adidas, Deutsche Telekom, Lufthansa and Commerzbank . ($1 = 0.9740 euros)