MUNICH, June 28 (AP): Bayern Munich and Qatar Airways said Wednesday they are ending a sponsorship deal which caused tension between the German soccer champion and its fans.
Bayern and the Qatari state-owned airline said in a joint statement that the sponsorship “ends by mutual agreement on 30 June 2023 after five very exciting years together.”
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Bayern’s players wore the Qatar Airways logo on their sleeves and regularly traveled to Qatar for winter training camps, including one in January this year.
Fan groups critical of the human rights record of the 2022 World Cup host nation had campaigned not to renew the deal when it expired at the end of the season.
Bayern fans booed the club’s directors at the club’s 2021 annual general meeting when officials refused to allow a vote on the sponsorship deal. Bayern management defended the sponsorship by saying that it had helped to bring positive change to Qatar, which was heavily criticized ahead of the World Cup for the conditions of migrant workers.
Fans who had criticized the deal welcomed the announcement Wednesday.
“I’m very pleased, even if it came unexpectedly. The signs in the last few days and weeks had been saying something else,” Michael Ott, the Bayern member who led the 2021 effort to force a vote on the Qatar Airways deal, told German news agency dpa.
“It shows me that fans can have an impact when they know how to use the resources that they have. This is a wonderful sign for sport, FC Bayern and us fans.”
The end of the deal follows the departure of one of its strongest supporters at Bayern, Oliver Kahn, who was fired as chief executive last month after a disappointing season.
Qatar remains a significant player in European soccer through its ownership of Paris Saint-Germain and a Qatari banker who is bidding to buy Manchester United.
