Football – The Rheinmetall deal divides BVB

Hans Joachim Watzke is a strong rhetorician, and so the managing director of Borussia Dortmund easily managed to defuse the anger from the weekend on Monday. The morning after a memorable BVB general meeting, he admitted that a clear majority of those present had approved a motion to end the lucrative partnership with the defense company Rheinmetall as quickly as possible. “If 585 members (and therefore 65 percent of those present, the editor) voted like this, that is a signal that I also hear,” Watzke called out to the visitors to the shareholders’ meeting, which traditionally takes place one day after the general meeting. But: “In an overall assessment, I also have to assess that this is 0.25 percent of our members.” So a tiny minority. In total, the club has 218,000 people, most of whom would never come to such an event.

The thunder from the previous day suddenly only sounded like a quiet rumble, and the vote has no concrete impact on operations anyway. The management is not bound to the voting results. Rather, Watzke suggested asking all members for their opinions and overall he did not seem dissatisfied with how the meetings went. On the contrary, he was even a little proud because the deal concluded with Rheinmetall had had exactly the effect he had wanted: there was controversial but factual and civilized discussion about a difficult topic, the importance of which goes far beyond football extends beyond.

This was mentioned in the club as one of the goals of the deal, which is expected to bring Borussia Dortmund around 20 million euros within three years. “Everyone involved showed a lot of respect for each other’s opinions,” explained Watzke in his review of the debate about the weapons manufacturer. And so BVB suddenly seemed like a place of decency where arguments were still held with dignity, while this cultural technique was being lost more and more out there in the world.

What position the club management is promoting on the issue of arms deliveries is not only clear from the deal, but also from the message that could already be read on advertising boards in the stadium: “Taking responsibility for a better world.” That translates as: The The production of weapons and their sale to democratic NATO states, but also to controversial regimes, is synonymous with taking responsibility for a changing world. So what is being advertised is not just a company, but also quite clearly a policy of rearmament and conflict resolution through weapons. This makes some members noticeably uncomfortable, which was expressed not least in protests in front of the event hall.

Borussia Dortmund may be venturing a little too far into socio-political territory at the moment. The social commitment, particularly against anti-Semitism, for which Watzke was recently honored with the renowned Leo Baeck Prize, is welcomed by the vast majority of members. When the football company decided to enter into a sponsorship with Rheinmetall, no one concealed the fact that a lot of money was involved, but the political message behind it is much more contentious. “This sponsorship divides us, it divides Borussia,” said Jakob Scholz from the club’s fan and support department about the vote on the Rheinmetall deal and explained: “The many conversations over the last few months and the discussion in our membership show me : The applications are an expression of the fear that our association’s jointly agreed guidelines only have a limited effectiveness and half-life.”

The people of Dortmund may be in the process of politicizing themselves in a new way – led by Watzke, who has repeatedly expressed his support for conservative positions that are clearly to the right of the old Merkel CDU. Since their days together in the Sauerland Young Union, he has maintained a close connection with candidate for chancellor Friedrich Merz. In the days before the general meeting it was also announced that Watzke’s confidante Jan-Henrik Guszecki, BVB’s strategy chief, would be considered as a candidate for the office of Dortmund mayor.

Gruszecki once stood in the south stand as an Ultra and could now be the man behind whom both the Greens and the CDU unite in local politics. A few days ago, Gruszecki said about a possible candidacy: “If two state-supporting parties such as the CDU and the Greens make inquiries, it is a civic duty to seriously address the issue.” It is perhaps no coincidence that these are precisely the two major parties , who particularly clearly support arms deliveries to Ukraine.

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