Rewe drops ads with German soccer association over armbands row

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.

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."

The decision reflects Germans' negative mood toward the tournament being hosted in Qatar, which could be seen both online, with the hashtag #BoycottQatar2022 trending on Twitter in Germany, or on the ground with various protests, including a German stadium lighting 20,000 candles for Qatar migrant worker fatalities on Sunday. Almost half of Germans are in favour of sponsors and politicians boycotts of the World Cup in Qatar and more than two thirds see a visit of Chancellor Olaf Scholz to the tournament as unnecessary, a survey by University of Hohenheim showed on Monday.

German interior and sports minister Nancy Faeser, who is due to travel to Qatar today, said Fifa's decision was a "big mistake that tears the hearts of the fans," adding that she will address this issue while she is in Doha. "It's a difficult road, but I think it's important that we continue to discuss human rights with the decision makers there," Faeser said.

Several soccer associations had said that 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 informed the German Football Association in October that 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.

Separately, Deutsche Telekom on Tuesday said it planned to talk with the German Football Association about the armbands controversy. The Sun newspaper on Sunday reported that drinks maker and England sponsor Lucozade has pulled all its branding from the World Cup in a snub to Qatar.

FIFA on Monday said it had brought forward its own "No Discrimination" campaign from the planned quarter-finals stage so that 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 7 million active members. Other DFB partners include Volkswagen, Adidas, Deutsche Telekom, Lufthansa and Commerzbank. ($1 = 0.9740 euros)

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