Football is the passion of the world; it is by far the most popular sport in the world with an estimated 4 billion fans globally. Football has over the years progressed beyond on-field action. It is a multi-billion-dollar sport which entails sponsorships, television rights, merchandise sales among others. The game has gradually turned into a life-changer as it offers opportunities for companies, countries, and individuals to change their fortunes through sponsorships and partnerships. From the FIFA World Cup, FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Champions League, CAF Champions League, and even domestic leagues, sponsorships play a key role as it offers companies and countries a great mileage in branding and visibility. Over the years, Rwanda has been vibrant in the world sporting industry.... maybe not based on pitch performance but on growing its global visibility on the global stage. The East African nation—through its Visit Rwanda initiative—is a strategic partner with major European clubs namely Arsenal in England, Paris Saint-Germain in France, Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich and most recently Atletico Madrid who play in the Spanish LaLiga. Visit Rwanda has been a huge avenue for the country to market itself by investing in sports partnership with these club which are followed by billions of football fans across the world. The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, currently going on in the United States of America has seen three teams who are in partnership with Rwanda participating. They are PSG, Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid. The Spanish side however failed to go past the Group stage. All the games that PSG played, the Visit Rwanda logo was displayed at the stadium as fans embraced it. The biggest attendance so far in the tournament was 80,619, which was between Paris Saint-Germain vs Atlético de Madrid at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Los Angeles on June 15. Rwanda won that day because these are two of the teams in partnership with the country. While Atletico Madrid had Visit Rwanda in front of their shirt, PSG also had it on their sleeve and a giant banner was also in the stadium boldly showing the Visit Rwanda brand aside the pitch panels. From California to Tokyo and from Greenland to Southern Africa, everyone saw Visit Rwanda. This drew people's attention to the country and with both teams displaying it, people will be eager to visit the country and witness tourism opportunities the country can offer. Times Sport’s football writer Edmund Okai Gyimah, who is in the United States for the Club World Cup, was at Manhattan Sports Shop at the downtown and the PSG and Atletico Madrid jerseys are surprisingly among the top selling replica jerseys. ALSO READ: PSG starlet Zaire Emery Visits Rwanda People have been buying the PSG jerseys since they won the UEFA Champions League and the demand is still high. An original jersey here costs $250,” John Clarke Wood, a sales agent at the shop told Times Sport. “The new Atletico Madrid jersey with Visit Rwanda logo is also selling well There are a huge number of Argentine people here in New York who are buying it the most because of coach Diego Simeone, Julian Alvarez and other Argentines, he added. Football sponsorships and partnerships actually didn't start today, it began in the late 1800s as English clubs sought financial assistance from businesses and wealthy individuals to support their team. Notwithstanding, it wasn't until 1956 that sponsorship and partnership in football really began to take shape. German club Eintracht Braunschweig was among one of the first teams in the world to have a sponsor’s name and logo on their jersey. It was a chocolate company called Helmuth Schwarz AG and other teams across Europe followed the suit. No Rwandan club is present at the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup but the country is benefiting greatly from the Visit Rwanda branding initiative. By having the logo on the jersey of PSG and Atletico Madrid, the country has gained enormous exposure through live broadcast, match highlights, social media post by fans as well as merchandise sales. The success of PSG and Bayern Munich, who have made it to the second round of the competition, offers Rwanda massive brand exposure as the number of people who watch the game could increase in the knockout phase. PSG will face Lionel Messi's Inter Miami in the second round and this is another big avenue for Visit Rwanda to be marketed. In all, Rwanda is being well marketed through the Visit Rwanda and the visibility could grow even bigger in the knockouts phase after two of the three club partners made it through the group stage. It has been a good business by Rwanda Development Board so far as the country continues to be one of the shining lights in Africa and the world in general.
