Arsenal announces end to “Visit Rwanda” sponsorship deal
Arsenal sleeve partnership Visit Rwanda on the Arsenal kit (via Arsenal)
The UK Football Club Arsenal announced that they will end their eight-year sponsorship deal with Visit Rwanda in June 2026, according to a BBC report on November 19th.
The decision follows scrutiny due to Rwanda’s role in backing the M23 rebels, who have unleashed violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The sleeve partnership, which began in 2018, is currently worth more than £10m ($13.3m) per year. Arsenal said that the partnership had ended mutually, and both parties had exceeded the goals of their partnership.
Previously, DR Congo Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner had appealed to football clubs Arsenal, Bayern Munich, and PSG to end their partnership with Visit Rwanda. She had highlighted how the money from the sponsorship could be used to fund the illegal extraction of “blood minerals” in occupied Congo, which is then exported from Rwanda for profits.
Kayikwamba Wagner wrote to Arsenal that Rwanda’s role in sustaining the conflict “has become incontrovertible”, citing UN findings that 4,000 Rwandan soldiers were active in the DRC. “It is time Arsenal ended its blood-stained sponsorship deals with this oppressor nation. If not for your own consciences, then the clubs should do it for the victims of Rwandan aggression,” she wrote.
The Rwanda Development Board, at the time, was not happy with Congo’s actions, claiming it undermines sports partnerships with “misinformation and political pressure”.
After the news of the sponsorship ending, an Arsenal fan-based campaign group, ‘Gunners for Peace’, took to Instagram saying that Arsenal “still has the class and the values to do the right thing.” They said, “We all know that money talks, but if fans get together and speak louder then they have to listen.”
The group had protested with a banner that read ‘Drop Visit Rwanda’ during a Champions League semi-final with PSG in April 2025, distributing armbands to cover up the logo on the kits.
African tourism boards are increasingly using elite European football sponsorships to boost global visibility and attract high-spending travellers. Football has a huge global audience, with the Premier League alone reaching 4.7 billion viewers across 188 countries, giving big exposure.
Rwanda’s portfolio also extends to the NBA, partnerships with the Los Angeles Rams and the LA Clippers. PSG, will continue the Visit Rwanda partnership until 2028, and Atlético Madrid has launched a three-year agreement displaying the logo on their men’s and women’s shirts this season.
While DR Congo has criticised the Rwanda Development Board’s sponsorships, they have secured their own sponsorship with FC Barcelona in July 2025, worth €40 million (US$47 million) over four years. The partnership will feature DRC branding in the training kit, “House of the DRC” at Camp Nou Stadium, along with youth development programmes.
In 2025, a fragile ceasefire was negotiated between the Congolese Army and M23 rebels in Qatar, but it was soon undermined by renewed offensives and deadly attacks by M23 rebels, including mass killings of civilians. Renewed peace talks have taken place, with negotiations still underway.
The Rwandan government maintains that any activity in eastern DR Congo is strictly defensive and aimed at securing its borders. However, UN investigators have presented evidence suggesting that Rwanda exercises significant command, control, and logistical support over the M23 rebel forces.
BBC, Arsenal, Times of Malta, Tourism Update, Maghrebi.org
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