Here’s why PUMA revealed it will not renew its sponsorship of the Apartheid Israel team
Supporting Israel’s brutal apartheid regime is always bad for business, even more so when it commits genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
PUMA has announced that it will not renew its sponsorship of the Apartheid Israel team. Here’s why.
Supporting Israel’s brutal apartheid regime is always bad for business, even more so as it commits genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
215 Palestinian teams wrote to PUMA in 2018 urging it to end its sponsorship of the Israel Football Federation over its national league’s inclusion of teams located in illegal Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land.
Since then, the international #BoycottPUMA campaign has incurred costs and serious reputational damage for PUMA.
For five years, we have:
-relentlessly protested and occupied PUMA offices and stores;
-convinced teams, athletes, artists and stores to get rid of PUMA;
-filled PUMA’s mailboxes and saturated its telephone lines;
-took control, online, of PUMA’s presence, denouncing its lies and hypocrisy;
-boycotted PUMA products.
PUMA has repeatedly admitted that it is under pressure from the international boycott campaign:
A PUMA lawyer told us the campaign was making their lives “miserable”. A leaked internal memo showed PUMA lied while trying to reassure worried business partners and brand ambassadors. PUMA’s CEO was so nervous that he said “BDS” by mistake while speaking about the “Better Cotton Initiative” last year at PUMA’s annual general meeting in front of 200 shareholders.
Since Israel began its genocidal war against the Palestinians in Gaza:
-Media reported that fans asked NCT 127 and Rihanna to end their collaboration with PUMA;
-O’Neills, Ireland’s largest sportswear chain, has removed PUMA products from its stores;
-Irish teams joined the boycott calling on their members and fans to boycott PUMA.
Targeted boycotts work.
PUMA’s contract with the Israel Football Federation expires in December 2024.
Let’s make sure PUMA stops being complicit in Israeli apartheid.
BDS FRANCE
