Puma has decided to end its sponsorship of Israel’s national soccer team in a move it says is not related to the calls to boycott Israel.
According to The Financial Times, the German Group said the decision was made a year ago and didn’t have anything to do with the calls to boycott Israel due to its airstrikes on Gaza following the October 7 Hamas attacks.
From the end of next year, Puma – which is the world’s third-largest sportswear company, will no longer be sponsoring the kit.
They decided not to renew a contract with the Israel Football Association, The Financial Times reported.
The official account of the BDS Movement – a Palestinian-led group to boycott Israel – praised the move and claimed it was a ‘victory’ of theirs.
The BDS reposted a Tweet which said: “After years of BDS campaigning that has cost German conglomerate @PUMA dearly in reputation and projects, we have forced it to abandon its sponsorship of the Israel Football Association in this time of Israel’s #GazaGenocide”.
AMAZING news! #BDS is UNSTOPPABLE! https://t.co/9aYhtiLnI1
— IPSC (@ipsc48) December 12, 2023
Calls for Puma to stop sponsoring the Israeli soccer team go as far back as 2018 when Puma first signed the deal.
According to The Financial Times, the Israel Football Association flatly rejected the claims, describing them as a “pathetic attempt…to mislead”. They said they had the option to renew to 2026 but did not do so due to contractual reasons.
Based on reports the decision was due to financial reasons with people close to the matter saying it was part of Puma’s wider strategy.
The BDS movement has called for several brands to boycott Israel including Mcdonald’s, Domino’s, and Pizza Hut.
In a recent post they said: “there is no doubt that many global companies, as part of the global structure of the economy (racial capitalism), are complicit in the genocidal war waged by Israel today against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, and some of these companies are involved in apartheid Israel’s economy to varying degrees”.
View this post on Instagram
