BERLIN (Reuters) – Grocery chain Rewe has suspended its advertising 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.
“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.”
FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, has threatened to issue yellow cards to any player wearing the multi-coloured armband at the World Cup.
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.
Rewe said it had already informed the German Football Association in October it did not want to continue their partnership agreement, but that after FIFA’s latest decision it wanted to clearly distance itself from FIFA’s position and waive its advertising rights under the sponsorship agreement.
The German Football Association said on Tuesday soccer federations 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.
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 is the world’s largest, with more than seven million active members.
(Reporting by Matthias Inverardi Writing by Miranda Murray; Editing by Mark Potter)
