Recently Arsenal FC announced that their 8 year shirt sponsorship agreement with Visit Rwanda will come to an end when the current Premier League season runs its course around June 2026.
The statement made on their official website implied that the decision came from Visit Rwanda, who will instead be looking to invest in other opportunities through a changed strategy:
The move reflects Visit Rwanda’s broader strategy to diversify its global sports partnerships and expand into new markets that support the next phase of its tourism and investment ambitions.
Arsenal fans have previously made their displeasure at having Visit Rwanda as a shirt sponsor known, and memorably the fan activist group Gunners for Peace ran several campaigns to highlight this displeasure, the most famous one being the “Visit Tottenham” parody.
Now, despite Arsenal not seeming to openly admit to the fact that fan pressure may have helped with the decision to end this particular sponsorship deal, football fans should feel proud that their actions have lead to such decisive change taking place.
And today it sounds like Arsenal have already found a new shirt sponsor as a replacement (an American Payroll and HR company called Deel) which goes to show how easy it is for a big brand like Arsenal to find what is likely to be a better form of sponsorship.
We wanted to take the chance to speak with Pat Burns, one of the driving forces behind Gunners for Peace, and the campaign against Visit Rwanda.
Thoughts from Pat Burns of Gunners for Peace
I exchanged messages with Pat to find out more about the campaign – I wanted to ask him more about how the campaign came about, what he feels worked well, and how other football fans can get involved in similar schemes.
Note – my questions are represented by my initials, MT. Pat’s are represented by the initials PB.
MT: Within Arsenal’s statement there were no mentions of fan protests or activity. Whilst this might be expected, does it also make it hard to take credit for your own campaigns role in helping to push for this decision?
PB: It’s slightly disappointing and would have been an opportunity for them to demonstrate that they will engage with and listen to fans. But it obviously wasn’t purely a financial decision so it’s easy enough to join the dots. And it absolutely won’t stop us putting it out there. It’s rare to have something tangible to show for a campaign like this so it felt like a big win.
MT: Your own campaign memorably made cheeky use of the Visit Tottenham strapline; how important do you feel this was in terms of bringing the topic to a far wider audience in a very much football-fan voice? Do you feel humour is often lacking from such campaigns and movements?
PB: Visit Tottenham was essential to the success of this campaign. It was a simple, easily understood message that caught people’s attention. And the fact that it allowed us to have some fun with the rivalry put us in a sweet spot. We’re all lifelong gooners and if you can speak to people in a language they understand, that gives you a real connection. And yes, absolutely. It’s too easy to treat serious subjects with total seriousness when a little bit of humour is much more appealing to your audience.
MT: Obviously here at Fossil Free Football we are somewhat aligned with our goals – we want to see football used as a positive force, and so not to see fossil fuel sponsorship within the game. Do you think using football fan humour is an important way in which we could grow our own reach within the game?
PB: There’s fun to be had with almost any subject, and if you can tap into that then you should. It’s more engaging, more unexpected and more enjoyable to do. Use it judiciously, though – there’s nothing more cringey than phony football bantz.
MT: Arsenal FC’s main shirt sponsor is of course Fly Emirates. Do you feel there is a significant gap between having a sponsor of an airline, vs encouraging travel to Rwanda? I guess to put this another way – would you now move your sights towards targeting the partnership between the club and Fly Emirates?
PB: It’s a different side of the same coin. Just because we went for Visit Rwanda doesn’t mean we’re not aware of the issues with Emirates. The truth is the fans aren’t attached to these sponsors – there was a time when a brand like JVC felt like part of the shirt, but I think those days are long gone, and a club like Arsenal should be able to find a less problematic sponsor. It’s a bigger fight to pick, though – a very big deal and stadium naming rights. But our tails are up. Never say never.
MT: For all football fans out there who feel strongly about how their own club is being run, and the dubious sponsorships and partnerships, what kind of advice would you give to them when it comes to trying to make a difference? Is there such a thing as an “idiots guide” to grassroots football activism – setting up a movement, finding supporters, and so on?
PB: We had an idea we liked and were lucky to find that poster site next to the stadium. If you can find a good angle, the right tone and have the ability to adapt to circumstances then you can reach a lot of people. Keep it simple, don’t shout at people and keep going.
MT: Are you surprised by the lack of coverage within the media towards Manchester City’s ownership, and what is taking place in Sudan? Could you argue now is the ideal time for football clubs from different clubs to start getting more involved with fan activism around the world?
PB: We’ve got used to it. Not just in football, but we just roll our eyes at everything and assume there’s nothing to be done. There’s this obscene amount of money in football that isn’t attached to anything beyond a vastly, artificially inflated market and how much you can make people pay for it. Erling Haaland doesn’t need 30-odd million pounds a year to play the game he loves. We’ve lost sight of what matters to fund a sport that’s totally out of control and now would be a great time to start doing something about it. Visit Rwanda is a baby step, but it shows we can make things happen.
Visit Rwanda are dropped… but what about the Emirates?
The decision of Arsenal to end their sponsorship with Visit Rwanda is clearly a good one, and shows the positive impact that football fans can have on the game that they dearly love.
But this doesn’t address the other huge elephant in the room – how fossil-fuel polluter Emirates seem to remain off the hook here. They of course have the rights to name Arsenal’s stadium after themselves, they sponsor the shirts and training gear. This relationship started back in 2006 and will be in place until at least 2028.
So whilst it’s great Arsenal have dropped the sponsor Visit Rwanda (or vice-versa, depending on how you interpret the news), football still seems to remain extremely entrapped within the grip of the fossil fuel industry.
Do football fans and clubs not see the impact of flying and pollution, and so are happy to accept it? Or do they feel powerless to change it? Perhaps there’s a bit of both here.
And then when we look at how the United Arab Emirates actually appear to be expanding the use and support of fossil fuels in general, taking advantage of events like COP28 to do more oil deals – it’s hard to see how to break this dependency and influence of fossil fuel money within the game.
The financial and soft power support that the Emirates sponsorship offers the UAE is also deeply problematic because of the country’s links to mass violence and atrocities in Sudan. Arsenal have stepped away from Visit Rwanda, and implicitly acknowledged that promoting a place doing huge harm was wrong, but remain committed to advertising the UAE. They should resolve this contradiction by also cutting their links to Emirates. Otherwise, Arsenal, just like Manchester City, remains both a propaganda vehicle and cash machine for the UAE’s violence in Sudan.
What about Infantino, Trump and FIFA?
At a much higher level you have the obvious issue of FIFA and their role as guardians of the game. To see Infantino cosying up with Donald Trump doesn’t inspire much confidence as to the future of the beautiful game.
It shouldn’t even fall on the shoulders of the fans to have to do this and it isn’t easy to see how fans could work together to bring down such an organisation, but it is totally possible and urgently needed.
Ideally, fans would just be left alone to enjoy the game, which is arguably all that anyone really wanted to do in the first place, before money and power began corrupting things beyond recognition. But if football’s decision makers are failing to properly lead, fans must use campaigns to send them a clear message about the change that is needed.
The importance of football fan activism today
We would argue that sadly, intervention from society (in the form of football fans) is needed more than ever today. Whilst many fans probably hate the idea of politics mixing with football, sadly this is inevitable when we realise just now much influence money, and corruption, is having upon the game at the highest level.
Football clubs are signing up sponsorship deals that generate the most revenue for the club without being mindful of the impact such sponsors have upon our society and environment, let alone what our supporters feel of these decisions.
What if football sponsorship could pass through more vigorous checks – for example asking how the sponsorship might align with a model or framework that asks how does the deal meets social and environmental boundaries that are clearly defined? In other words – not to sign deals that clearly harm people, or the planet, and in the case of fossil fuel polluters like Aramco, both.
And what if football supporter groups could be asked to vote on such sponsorship decisions too, instead of keeping them confined to the boardroom and this elite group of owners and shareholders?
Like it or not, we’re seeing more and more instances whereby football fans are being asked to stand up and use their voice to push back against the failures of our politics and of the establishment. And we can only imagine this is going to continue to get worse before it gets better.
So – what better time than now to mobilise – create those supporter groups, find those with common values, and organise yourself so that your voice gets heard. Otherwise we risk losing the game completely.
