BAGHDAD: Two clubs from Iraqi Kurdistan announced on Saturday their withdrawal from the country’s football championship in protest at anti-Kurdish chants during a match against a Shiite club.
The match itself was briefly suspended after Irbil’s players walked off when home club supporters in the Shiite city of Najaf south of Baghdad chanted slogans associating the Kurdish regional capital Irbil in the north with the Islamic State jihadist group.
Iraqi television, which was broadcasting the match, cut the audio to block the chanting.
“We called our players off because of the slogans... which the Najaf public was chanting against Kurdistan and its political figures,” Abdallah Majid, a director of the Irbil club, told AFP.
“This is unacceptable and has no place in sport,” he said, adding that Irbil was pulling out of the championship until “a decision is taken at the political level.”
A second Kurdish club in the Iraqi league, Zakho, withdrew in solidarity with Irbil.
The Iraqi football federation issued a statement apologizing to Irbil and calling for punitive measures to be taken over the incident.
IS fighters seized swathes of Iraqi territory west and north of Baghdad in 2014, including areas bordering autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan.
Iraqi federal forces, Shiite militias and Kurdish peshmerga fighters in mid-October launched an anti-IS offensive to try to recapture the northern city of Mosul.
But strains remain between Kurdistan and Baghdad over oil resources in northern Iraq and the scope of autonomy.
Iraq’s football federation has for years been lobbying the sport’s world governing body FIFA to lift a ban on the country hosting international games because of security concerns.
Kurdish-Shiite row erupts at Iraqi football match
Kurdish-Shiite row erupts at Iraqi football match
Dortmund’s new CEO defends sponsorship deal with arms manufacturer Rheinmetall
- Cramer said “it’s maybe a part of life that we do not need to agree 100 percent to everything the club are doing”
- At the 2024 AGM, a majority of members present voted against further cooperation with Rheinmetall
BERLIN: German soccer club Borussia Dortmund’s new chief executive has defended their contentious sponsorship agreement with Rheinmetall, the country’s largest arms manufacturer.
Carsten Cramer, who took over from outgoing Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke last month, said Thursday he was 100 percent committed to the three-year deal announced by the club in May 2024, and that he was “convinced it was the right decision” despite many Dortmund fans making their opposition to it clear.
“I do accept the criticism,” Cramer said. “It’s maybe a part of life that we do not need to agree 100 percent to everything the club are doing. But in certain times it is necessary to take responsibility, and in these dangerous times where the safety and security of our country is not protected by diplomatic relationships and political relationships, I think it is a clear commitment of a club like Dortmund that we have to invest in defense.”
Rheinmetall last month announced record figures for the first nine months of 2025, with sales up 20 percent to 7.5 billion euros ($8.8 billion), while its backlog in orders reached 64 billion euros ($75 billion). It announced record sales of weapon systems, ammunition and protection systems driven by wars in Ukraine and elsewhere.
“We have to start and run a discussion in our country how to defend our country and Dortmund are always taking responsibility,” Cramer said. “We are always saying we are more than just a football club.”
Dortmund present Rheinmetall on their website as a “champion partner” and they display the company’s banner on advertising hoardings during games.
The agreement has caused friction among supporters to varying degrees with some Dortmund fans even going so far as to renounce their support. There were boos for Watzke at the club’s AGM last month, when he was appointed club president with 59 percent of the vote though he might have expected more. Watzke played a significant role in steering the club through a financial crisis in 2005.
At the 2024 AGM, a majority of members present voted against further cooperation with Rheinmetall.
That came after the team’s first game of the 2024-25 season was marked by fan protests against the sponsorship deal.
“Five years ago, I never expected that we would work together with a defense company. But now democracy, the system, the defense structure of our territories (is) under pressure, and I think we have to open the eyes of the people that we are not able to defend our country, our system, just by hoping that the Americans will care for us,” Cramer said.
“If a club like us are not inviting (people) to discuss something like this, who should do it?”
