The German clothing and sports equipment firm Puma will stop sponsoring the Israeli national football team when the current contract expires in 2024, as confirmed by a spokeswoman for the multinational, stressing that this is an exclusively commercial decision.
In a statement sent to Europa Press, the Puma spokesperson explained that the company’s contracts with federations such as Serbia and Israel will end in 2024. “These decisions were made in 2022 in accordance with the usual deadlines for the design and development of the team shirts,” he specified to separate the measure from the current conflict in Gaza, after the Hamas attacks last October and Israel’s response.
In this sense, the German company has explained that the decision is part of Puma’s new planning, which at the end of 2022, decided to implement its new “less, more, better” strategy and also apply it to sports marketing.
Thus, the review of the existing list of national teams along with certain key performance indicators (KPIs), such as commercial and participation in international tournaments, led to some changes, including the announcement at the end of this year and in 2024 of two newly signed national teams.
Puma’s sponsorship of the Israel soccer team, signed in 2018, according to ‘Financial Times’, triggered a boycott campaign, in which activists accused the German brand of supporting Israeli settlements in the West Bank, although Puma has rejected the accusations, saying that he only sponsors the national team and not activities at the club level.
In this sense, the pro-Palestinian movement BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) has assured in X that the decision to end the association between Puma and the Israeli soccer team responds to the reputational impact for the German brand of its boycott claims. during years.
