'Visit Tottenham!' - Arsenal fans launch satirical campaign in protest against club's controversial Rwanda sponsorship

Gunners For Peace have unveiled a new billboard outside the Emirates Stadium as part of a campaign against the club’s Visit Rwanda sponsorship deal. The 'Visit Tottenham' billboard has been launched along with a satirical video which calls for the club to end the Visit Rwanda deal. The group will also hand out armbands ahead of Arsenal's Premier League clash with Crystal Palace which can be used to cover up the 'Visit Rwanda' logo on club shirts.

Arsenal started their Visit Rwanda shirt sleeve sponsorship in 2018 on a three-year deal and extended it in 2021. The sponsorship deal brought in £10 million ($13.4m) during the 2023-24 season, according to The Athletic. However, it has come in for criticism due to the current conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Gunners for Peace addressed the situation in a statement on their website: "Arsenal is a great club. We have standards. Which is why Visit Rwanda needs to end. This is the same regime that’s funding a brutal militia committing atrocities against thousands of innocent victims in Eastern Congo. We don’t want our club to sell its soul to the highest bidder. And we certainly don’t want to wear it on our sleeves. We think anything – literally anything – would be better than Visit Rwanda.”

James Turner, a Gunners For Peace spokesperson, told The Athletic: "We want the board to drop the deal in time for next season. Now we’re getting regular Champions League football there must be a queue of sponsors ready to take Rwanda’s place, and it would send a great message that some things are more important than money. We’re in touch with Arsenal fans in Congo who are refusing to wear the shirt until this sponsorship is ended. This campaign is for them.

"The video is an advert for the delights of Tottenham as a tourism destination. The Tottenham stuff is a joke, a way to get other Arsenal fans talking on the terraces and in the pub. Obviously, none of us would accept Tottenham on the shirt, so why Rwanda? Where do we draw the line when it comes to these corporate deals? We know that Arsenal fans think about this stuff, so we’re just trying to make it easier for them to engage with us."

Arsenal host Crystal Palace at the Emirates on Wednesday in the Premier League where fans look set to try and make the club fully aware of their feelings about the Visit Rwanda campaign.