Borussia Dortmund CEO defends club's sponsorship deal with Germany's biggest arms manufacturer

DORTMUND, Germany — Borussia Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke has defended the Bundesliga club’s controversial sponsorship deal with Germany’s biggest arms manufacturer despite strong criticism from fans.

The Rheinmetall deal was a major issue at the club’s AGM on Sunday, when members were greeted by two mock tanks and an information stand against the agreement as they arrived at the venue. Members then blasted the deal in three motions brought against it. One motion urged the club to end the partnership with Rheinmetall as soon as possible.

But Watzke was unbowed, saying the club’s leadership had discussed it “intensively” before deciding to proceed.

Dortmund fans were surprised when the club announced the deal in May, three days before the team lost to Real Madrid in the Champions League final. It has since become a cause for major protest.

Rheinmetall is the world’s largest maker of artillery ammunition and expects to make record group sales of around 10 billion euros ($10.6 billion) this year. Trade has been helped by conflicts in Ukraine and elsewhere.

“Believe me, I had sleepless nights at the start of the process. Because I knew it was a very, very difficult decision,” Watzke told the club’s members. “It was a tough decision, a decision that demanded a lot from me personally. But I stand by it.”

Watzke said fans were entitled to object to the deal.

“The most important thing is that we can deal with different opinions and views with decency and respect,” he said.

Dortmund’s three-year deal with Rheinmetall includes “wide-reaching advertising space, marketing rights and event and hospitality arrangements in the stadium and on the club grounds,” the club announced in May.

Many Dortmund fans protested against the deal around and during the team’s first Bundesliga game of the season in August.

Rheinmetall in February announced the construction of a new factory at its existing site in Unterluess in northern Germany, with annual production capacity for 200,000 artillery shells, 1,900 tons of explosives, and possibly rocket engines and warheads.

“Those who manufacture weapons of war do not profit from peace, but from war,” Dortmund fanzine Schwatzgelb said last week.

Founded in 1889 as “Rheinische Metallwaaren- und Maschinenfabrik Actiengesellschaft,” the Düsseldorf-based company was one of Germany’s biggest armaments manufacturers during both World Wars. It made use of forced labor during World War II.