BDS: Adidas no longer sponsor of Israel football teams

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has said that German sports brand Adidas is no longer a sponsor of the Israel Football Association (IFA), media reports revealed last week.

Quds Net News said that BDS activists wrote on its website that Adidas terminated its services to the IFA after a campaign asking the sports giant to stop its complicity in the oppression of Palestinian people.

In March, BDS said, over 130 Palestinian football clubs urged Adidas to end its sponsorship of the IFA over its inclusion of six teams based in Israeli settlements across occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank.

BDS said that it handed over a petition with 16,000 signatures to Adidas’ headquarters in Amsterdam in June.

Read: Palestinian football clubs urge Adidas to drop Israeli sponsorship over settlements

According to BDS, Adidas responded to the petition saying: “We have raised with FIFA the need for them to adjudicate on the question of the Israeli settlement teams, by following the tenets of international law and their human rights policy.”

International human rights groups, experts and over 100 European legislators have urged FIFA to resolve the issue of Israeli settlement clubs, BDS said. Despite these calls, FIFA has refused to address the issue saying they will remain “neutral”.

The German sportswear mogul Puma has taken over sponsorship of the IFA, leading to calls by activists for it to comply with its code of ethics and cancel the contract.