The Champions League Final Will Be Rwanda's Sportswashing Coronation
All four Champions League semi-finalists had a Visit Rwanda sponsorship. Sanctions, human rights abuse violations and multiple campaigns haven't made a difference.
Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame sat in the directors’ box of the Riyadh Air Metropolitano stadium next to King Felipe VI of Spain, watching two clubs bore his country’s name.
On April 29, Arsenal and Atlético Madrid drew 1-1 in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final. The night before, Kagame had taken in the other semi-final Parc des Princes, where Paris Saint-Germain beat Bayern Munich 5-4, seated between Nasser Al-Khelaïfi and a former French president.
Every team in the last four of the Champions League football carried some form of Visit Rwanda marking, on sleeves, training kits, perimeter boards or backdrops. Rwandan media called it “the Visit Rwanda Derby.”
The semi-finals were the high-water mark of a strategy that began in 2018, when Arsenal sold its first sleeve patch to the Rwanda Development Board on a deal SportsPro reports was worth £10 million (US$13.5 million) a year.
