Boycott movement: Puma ends its contract with the Israeli Football Association | economy

The global boycott of Puma campaign announced that the German company Puma will end its sponsorship contract with the Israel Football Association (IFA) by December 31, 2024, after a 5-year boycott campaign.

This campaign has been led by more than 215 Palestinian sports teams since 2018, calling on the company to end its support for the federation, which includes teams from illegal settlements built on occupied Palestinian territories, and which the Israeli government actively supports.

The campaign, organized by the Boycott Movement (BDS), involved many sports teams, artists, and institutions around the world, as they suspended their contracts with Puma, and several stores removed the company’s products from their shelves.

The campaign took multiple forms, such as organizing global days of protest, occupying Puma’s offices and stores, and flooding its mailboxes and emails with objections, which severely affected the company’s image and reputation.

Puma replied

Puma was subjected to great pressure because of the campaign, as the company’s lawyer revealed in a conversation with an activist in the boycott movement that the campaign had made their lives “unbearable.”

In a subsequent internal leak, Puma attempted to reassure its business partners and ambassadors that it was not complicit with the Israeli government, but the CEO’s statements during the company’s general meeting in 2023, where he incorrectly mentioned the term “BDS” while speaking about the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI). ), showed the extent of the negative impact of the campaign.

Puma’s decision came after it was subjected to additional pressure following the Israeli aggression on Gaza on October 7, 2023, which is widely and internationally described as genocide, as a result of which more than 44,000 Palestinians were martyred, and about 105,000 others were injured, most of them children and women. , including hundreds of athletes.

During that period, fans of teams and artists demanded that they end their collaboration with Puma, and Ireland’s largest sports store chain, O’Neils, removed Puma products from its stores.

New sponsor

The report confirmed that the new sponsor will be the small Italian company “Area”, and its sponsorship will begin in January 2025, with a contract that includes a 40% reduction in sponsorship fees, from 100,000 euros annually to 60,000 euros, which indicates the difficulties he faced. The Israeli Football Association is trying to find an alternative sponsor.

The boycott movement warned the Italian company against moving forward with this contract, considering that this makes it complicit in war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed by Israel, based on recent decisions of the International Court of Justice.

The movement called for launching a boycott campaign against the company if it continues this unethical contract.