Bayern Munich, Qatar Airways end €100m sponsorship deal after protest

FC Bayern Munich and Qatar Airways won’t renew their sponsorship deal after fans of Germany’s richest football team protested the tie-up.

The Bundesliga club and the Qatari national airline will part ways after their five-year deal runs out at the end of this month, they said in a statement Wednesday. The contract is worth around €20 million ($21.9 million) a year, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported.

Bayern fans have in the past years rallied against the brand amid criticism over Qatar’s human rights record and treatment of migrant workers in the run-up to the 2022 World Cup in the Gulf state. The airline is a major sponsor of Bayern’s playing kit, with the logo displayed on the sleeve of the shirt.

Hundreds of fans booed Bayern executives including former chief executive officer Oliver Kahn at the club’s annual general meeting in 2021 after they refused to put the deal with Qatar Airways to a vote.

German football has recently been battling infighting over how to best run its football league. Germany’s professional football body DFL in May failed to win enough backing from clubs for its plan to raise as much as €2 billion selling Bundesliga media rights to private equity investors. CVC Capital Partners, Blackstone and Advent International were said to be among the parties interested.

The push faltered because clubs including Hamburg’s FC St. Pauli, whose fans have deep links with the city’s punk scene, expressed strong reservations.

“FC Bayern and Qatar Airways have worked together successfully and learned from each other,” Jan-Christian Dreesen, FC Bayern Munich’s chairman, said in a statement.

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