Puma will end its sponsorship of Israel’s national football team in 2024, a change that is unrelated to pro-Palestine consumer boycott efforts as per the company’s spokeswoman.
Puma has long faced boycott requests because of its brand partnership with the Israel Football Association (IFA), but such calls have become louder during Israel’s two-month war in Gaza, which has killed over 18,000 Palestinians.
A Puma representative told Reuters that the company’s contracts with numerous federations, including Serbia and Israel, were set to expire in 2024 and would not be extended.
According to the spokesman, Puma will shortly announce agreements with numerous more national teams as part of its “fewer-bigger-better strategy.”
An internal Puma letter obtained by the Financial Times, which broke the story, also confirmed the reorganisation.
The memo said Puma would continue to “evaluate all other existing partnerships as well as any other upcoming opportunities to ensure we have a strong roster of national teams”, the news organisation reported.
Puma initially struck an arrangement with the IFA to supply players with equipment in 2018.
Since then, campaigners have called for a boycott of the corporation, claiming that it involves teams headquartered in illegal Jewish-only settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Before and during the Gaza conflict, global corporations that supported Israel faced increasing boycott demands from the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
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