FC Bayern criticized by the Central Council of Jews for the Qatar deal

Josef Schuster, President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, has reprimanded FC Bayern for the record champions’ business relationships with Qatar.

He “signed” the critical supporters’ statement that the former Bayern President Kurt Landauer, who was a Jew, would turn around in his grave in view of the sponsorship agreement with the state-owned company, said Schuster. “And I share the content of the proposal,” he said, referring to the fan plan to force the club not to renew the contract at the annual general meeting next week.

The partnership between FCB and Qatar is also said to have been critically questioned from the ranks of the players. As the image reported that in a conversation with the club management about six months ago, captain Manuel Neuer asked about the background to the situation of human and workers’ rights in the host country of the 2022 World Cup and then questioned the partnership. According to the report, some other players would also welcome an end to the collaboration.

For the Bayern bosses, “the banknotes were so attractive that they didn’t pay enough attention to the other at the time,” said Schuster about the sponsorship. This “other” is the financial support from the desert state for terrorist organizations like Hamas or Iran and the “questionable” working conditions on the World Cup construction sites.

Schuster calls the Munich-based company ‘s reference to a request by Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2018 to SMEs to enter into business relationships with Qatar “in no way logical, (…) this is purely about an advertising campaign”. He also had “serious doubts that the FC Bayern dialogue will in any way help improve the human rights situation in Qatar”.

He would like the people of Munich, for whom the member of the German Ethics Council is “very sympathetic,” to comply with the fans’ request. And with a view to the 2022 World Cup, he hopes that the national team will “take a clearly critical stance, possibly also on site”.