The firm says the transfer, deliberate since final yr, is unrelated to boycott calls towards it amid Israel’s warfare on Gaza.
Sports model Puma will cease sponsoring Israel’s nationwide soccer staff in 2024, based on an organization spokesperson.
The transfer was deliberate since final yr and isn’t associated to shopper boycott calls towards Israel amid the Gaza warfare, the spokesperson for the German sportswear agency stated on Tuesday.
Puma has lengthy confronted boycott calls over its model alliance with the Israel Football Association (IFA), however such calls have intensified throughout Israel’s two-month offensive in Gaza, which has killed greater than 18,000 Palestinians.
In an announcement emailed to the Reuters information company, a Puma spokesperson stated the corporate’s contracts with a number of federations, together with Serbia and Israel, have been attributable to expire in 2024 and wouldn’t be renewed.
The spokesperson stated Puma would quickly announce offers with a number of new nationwide groups, as a part of its “fewer-bigger-better strategy”.
An inner Puma memo seen by the Financial Times, which first reported the information, additionally confirmed the shake-up.
The memo stated Puma would proceed to “evaluate all other existing partnerships as well as any other upcoming opportunities to ensure we have a strong roster of national teams”, the newspaper reported.
Puma first signed its contract with the IFA to offer package to gamers in 2018.
Since then, the corporate has confronted boycott calls from activists, who say the IFA additionally contains groups based mostly in Jewish-only settlements within the occupied West Bank, that are unlawful below worldwide regulation.
Global corporations supportive of Israel have confronted rising boycott calls by the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) motion earlier than and in the course of the Gaza warfare.
Earlier this week, vogue firm Zara pulled an promoting marketing campaign from its web site after it drew a backlash for showing to imitate scenes of struggling in Gaza and sparked boycott calls from pro-Palestine activists.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/12/puma-to-end-sponsorship-of-israels-national-football-team-in-2024?traffic_source=rss
