Football Imperialism: As DRC- Barcelona Shirt Sponsorship Deal Is Announced, 17 July 2025

A shocker

In recent months, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been in the news for giving up  its mineral wealth to the Trump administration in exchange for a promise of security from the United States of America (USA). As if that was not enough, the Kinshasa administration headed by Felix Tshisekedi has brewed another shocking, shameful, and questionable move. Sponsoring a European football team while its own people are queuing for international donor funds to survive starvation.

 The Deal

The Democratic Republic of Congo has entered into a US $46.37 million sponsorship deal with Spanish football club FC Barcelona, aiming to rebrand the conflict-affected nation as a prime tourism destination under the tagline “Heart of Africa”.^[2] Under the deal Barcelona players will wear these "Heart of Africa" branded shirts during training and warm-ups for both men's and women's teams before football matches, The logo will also appear in advertising for the club and in the club magazine and annual report. DRC will pay Barcelona between US $11.6 million and US $13.3 million annually over the next four seasons (years).

Questionable Priorities: Africa's Problem

The DRC government says it is a strategy to promote tourism in the DRC. But not everyone is sold on this idea. Indeed, this is another bad African strategy to impress the world. Why would a mineral-rich but poor African country like DRC invest to appear on the training and warm-up gear of a European team? It is not even the team's playing jersey but mere training and warm-up gear - it's mindboggling. This surely will go down as a classic case of feeding rich nations while the people of DRC wallow in unimaginable poverty and starvation.

Tourism? 

DRC is a country noted for its corruption. No roads. No electricity. No decent basic infrastructure. Children are still learning under trees. No medication in hospitals. Malnutrition and hunger are common in many parts of DRC. And the government is forking out nearly US$47 million to invest on the training and warm-up gear for a European team. Some will argue that the deal is a significant step in DRC's efforts to boost its global image and attract tourists - senseless! Global image! While the image portrayed by DRC citizens is of poverty. Where is the interest of the suffering citizens in all this senseless move - forever caught up in unending conflicts and many stuck in refugeehood. Why not start by polishing and upgrading the image of your own citizens? Attracting tourists where or for what? "War Tourism" or exactly what? The paradox is heartbreaking. The Spanish government itself, where this football club (Barcelona) is based, brands DRC unsafe to visit and discourages its own citizens from visiting DRC. Also, it is questionable why a government should promote tourism when a country isn't safe and still at war? Something is not adding up here. Instead of solving security and economic problems, the Kinshasa government has found it wise and prudent to sponsor Barcelona. When will Africa wake up from this slumber and rebuild and rebrand this laughingstock name tag to something worthy and better?

Rwanda

The English football club Arsenal also has a similar sponsorship deal with Kigali.^[3] The deal is reported to be worth over US $10 million annually. The deal started in 2018 and is expected to last up to summer of 2025. Under the deal, Arsenal's jerseys feature the "Visit Rwanda" logo on the left sleeve as part of their sponsorship deal with the Rwandan government. Similar deals have also been made with other European clubs, such as Bayern Munich of Germany and Paris St Germain (PSG) of France.

 South Africa

Years back, in South Africa, there was a time when the South African Department of Tourism wanted to sponsor Tottenham Hotspurs of England with millions of dollars for some such similar deal.^[4] However, this bad strategy, thank heavens, was rejected in its infancy.

Football-Politics United

A closer look at these sponsorship deals by both DRC & Rwanda unravels some disturbing similarities. Are we missing something? Rwanda has football sponsorship deals with Arsenal of England, Paris St. Germain (PSG) of France and Bayern Munich of Germany and rumours point to other upcoming deals with Monaco and AC Milan of Italy. Rwanda is also in the business of supplying rare minerals or metals to the European Union (EU). Remember the February 2024 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between EU and Rwanda on sustainable raw materials value chains under the Global Gateway initiative. In addition to DRC’s deal with Barcelona, there are rumours of further deals with Monaco and AC Milan to follow. Just recently, DRC offered its mineral resources to the US in a deal where both leaders are to be invited to Washington DC to put pen and paper together after a recent agreement was signed by foreign ministers of both DRC and Rwanda in the presence of US President Donald Trump.^[5] Are there more to football sponsorship deals? We can never be certain.

Football Imperialism

This trend of African countries sponsoring flourishing, financially stable and rich European clubs is worrisome. This is a new form of imperialism, football imperialism. Honestly speaking, who is benefiting from these deals? Is Africa or African citizens benefiting from all such arrangements? Time and again African governments are told of the need to market themselves globally and improve tourism. Where are the interests of African citizens in this? Africa needs to tread carefully and be wary of these unfair and one-sided ‘sponsorship’ deals. Empirical studies need to be carried out to ascertain whether indeed these football deals promote tourism, but it won't be surprising to find out that it is all business talk and nothing more.

The centre-periphery theory, also known as the core-periphery model, is a spatial metaphor used to describe and explain uneven development and unequal power relationships between a more developed "centre" and a less developed "periphery" economy. Wealth flows from the periphery to sustain the core; thus, creating and perpetuating underdevelopment in the periphery.  This model can be applied to understand global relationships between countries of the North (developed) like Europe and countries of the Global South (developing) like Africa. Just like in the economic core-periphery relationship, the same might be extended to the football business between Europe and Africa through these so-called "Tourism enhancement or global image shaping football deals". Africa, if this trend goes unchecked, will be sponsoring billions of dollars for European football clubs at the expense of its own football business. African governments are sponsoring these European clubs whilst failing or neglecting the sponsoring of African football business to the amount of such millions of dollars. And, in some cases, they fail to build their own local stadia for their own local football clubs. Having their own local teams playing in threadbare shirts, even playing shirtless, whilst sponsoring flourishing, rich European football clubs is not only questionable but heart wrenching.

 Conclusion

With all the trouble in DRC, the government still has money to sponsor the third richest football Club in the world with a 2024 net worth of US $5.51 billion.^[6] A country like DRC, full of war wants tourists, it sounds crazy. That almost US $47 million money would make a huge difference if it was spent on DRC's basic education, health, and road infrastructure. DRC paying such an amount of money to an elite flourishing European club like Barcelona, which is worth billions of dollars, is a disastrous move when DRC citizens are poverty-stricken, war-ravaged, hunger-stricken, and suffering from malnutrition. One wonders what should come first - sponsoring Barcelona or sponsoring peace in the DRC? 

Fortune Madondo is an African Teacher, and can be reached at [email protected]

Endnotes