On Tuesday, July 14, The Athletic revealed that Aston Villa had reached an agreement with Visit Rwanda to be the new front-of-shirt sponsor.It is a multi-year deal that sees Visit Rwanda become the club’s principal partner and, to quote Villa’s announcement on social media, their “official tourism partner and official coffee provider”.However, the affiliation does not come without complications. Visit Rwanda held a deal with Arsenal and counts Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain as partners, yet sections of each fanbase have protested against their club’s involvement.Here, The Athletic explains why Visit Rwanda has proved to be a controversial brand for football clubs.How important is the deal to Villa?Villa sources with knowledge of the deal, speaking anonymously to protect commercial relationships, said it is the most lucrative in Villa’s history, with a 20 per cent increase over the previous shirt sponsor, gambling platform Betano.Club sources claimed the partnership could be worth up to £20million ($27m) a year if bonuses are met, starting from a base of around £17million. When the Betano link-up was announced in 2024, there were reports it would be worth £20m a year, but two sources with knowledge of that situation say the deal was worth closer to £14m a year.While Villa were looking for a new sponsor in June, they revealed their home kit, which initially went on sale without a company’s name or logo on the shirt front.The multi-year agreement with Visit Rwanda will see players from the club’s men’s and women’s teams visit the African country.Speaking to The Athletic, Janet Karemera, chief executive officer of the Rwanda Convention Bureau (RCB), outlined some of the collaborations. “They’re (Villa) going to come to Rwanda,” she said, speaking on Thursday.“We have in our partnership the men’s team, women’s team are coming to visit. Also the executive leadership (team). On their board they have a board member who’s already invested in Rwanda. They’re very much aware of the country and its ambitions.”Villa’s previous deal was with Betano (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)What is Visit Rwanda?Visit Rwanda is the national tourism brand of the east African country, intending to promote it as a premier travel and investment destination. But it has proven controversial when partnering with clubs.As explained by The Athletic’s Dan Sheldon in a detailed look at the brand, Rwanda has been led by President Paul Kagame of the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) party since 2000. From 2022, United Nations (UN) reports have linked the Rwandan government to the M23, which the UN calls an “armed group” operating in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a country prized for its mineral-rich reserves. In February 2025, the UN called on the Rwandan government to “cease support to the M23 and immediately withdraw from DRC territory”.The UN said the Rwandan army is in “de facto” control of the M23 and, in an August 2025 report, stated it had received “first-hand accounts indicating that at least 319 civilians were killed by M23 fighters, aided by members of the Rwanda Defence Force” a month earlier.The United Kingdom’s government suspended aid to Rwanda in February 2025 and the United States imposed sanctions on the country in March, which Rwanda said targeted only one side of the conflict.Kagame’s government has categorically denied offering financial or military support and says it has only taken measures to protect Rwandan territory.What deals has it held with football clubs before Villa?Visit Rwanda’s European partnerships include PSG and Atletico Madrid, but its shirt sleeve sponsorship with Arsenal, which was worth £10million a year, concluded after eight years at the end of last season.In 2023, Bayern Munich signed a five-year partnership with Visit Rwanda that included in-stadium branding, with the German club dismissing allegations of “sportswashing”. Two years in, this was restructured, with Visit Rwanda no longer visible at the Allianz Arena.“The new arrangement transitions away from a commercial sponsorship to a dedicated partnership focused on youth development in Rwanda through the expansion of Bayern Munich’s youth academy in Kigali,” a club statement read.Arsenal’s deal with Visit Rwanda ended last season (Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)With PSG, the partnership sees Visit Rwanda on the sleeves of women’s kits, as well as the men’s training and warm-up kits. It features inside the Parc des Princes and, similarly to what Visit Rwanda stated in its ambitions with Villa, set out to develop football in the country. PSG, for example, operate a free-to-play academy in Kigali.In April 2025, Atletico Madrid announced an agreement until 2028, with the Visit Rwanda logo visible on the women’s first-team training and warm-up clothing, and also displayed in five La Liga men’s matches and during last summer’s Club World Cup.How did fans protest against previous deals?As reported by The Athletic, its sponsorship deals with other European clubs have been the subject of protests and accusations of sportswashing.The Gunners For Peace group in April 2025 unveiled a ‘Visit Tottenham’ billboard outside the Emirates as part of a campaign against the club’s Visit Rwanda ties. A survey by Arsenal Supporters Trust, published in July 2025, showed 90 per cent of the respondents wanted the club to cut ties with Visit Rwanda once the contract expired. Just under three per cent said they were happy for it to continue.In early 2025, PSG supporters created a ‘Stop Visit Rwanda’ petition, which was signed by more than 75,000 people, calling on the club to cut its commercial ties. They said continuing the partnership “would risk giving the impression (PSG) is closing its eyes to human-rights violations”.That April, PSG and Visit Rwanda renewed the agreement through to 2028.During a home match against Eintracht Frankfurt in February 2025, Bayern supporters held up banners protesting the club’s Visit Rwanda deal. It read: “Visit Rwanda — Whoever looks on with indifference is betraying the values of FC Bayern.”Bayern fans protested their links to Visit Rwanda in February 2025 (Leonhard Simon/Getty Images)What have people said about the deal?In a statement given to The Athletic, Felix Jakens, Amnesty International UK’s head of campaigns, said: “It’s not new that Rwanda is using sportswashing to deflect attention from its terrible human rights record.“Aston Villa should be well aware that Rwanda is seeking to leverage this partnership to create positive PR. The country is prolific in arbitrary detention, torture and the repression of free speech — these are abuses at home.“We are seeing bloodshed right before our eyes in DRC, and Rwanda is playing a significant role in fuelling that conflict – both through its support to the M23 rebels and the direct actions of its military.“Rwanda’s sportswashing needs to be called out, and we’d like Aston Villa and the Premier League to play their part.”The Premier League declined to comment when approached by The Athletic.What have Villa said?In an interview with three journalists, including The Athletic, Villa’s head of business operations, Francesco Calvo, said: “The money is not above our expectations but we are extremely happy and satisfied, for sure, and for two reasons.“Not only for the money but also the kind of partner that we have signed with, and how it will support our growth and marketing activities. In the end, when you look for a partner, you look at the money, the prestige of the brand and the marketing initiatives that we can activate. We achieved all of those three objectives.”“I do think that Rwanda is a very forward-looking country, very much focused on the future. I say that based on all our direct experiences with them and the people we’re working with there. I do believe that they focus on sport: to generate tourism, attention and investment for Rwanda. This is the way Rwanda sees this partnership.“Secondly, there is a goal to develop football and football players in Rwanda, to try to inspire people from Rwanda by having their nation associated with top-class European football.“In terms of geopolitics; I don’t believe it’s the place of football clubs to opine on these serious issues. We have a responsibility to our fans and our communities to be true to our values, but not to weigh in on issues much more serious than football which we are not experts in.“We want to help develop sporting, economic and tourism opportunities for Rwandan people. That is the basis of this partnership.”What has Visit Rwanda said?Karemera of the RCB told The Athletic: “We are going into it (the deal) focusing on increasing tourism, continuing to increase investments that come into Rwanda. Sports development is a big component. All of those contribute to sports development and increasing business events that come into the country. A lot of this is about converting people who may have learned about us through our previous partnership and now bringing them into the country. It’s about continuing to make people aware of Rwanda and what Rwanda has to offer.“With Aston Villa, we found an alignment with our values, with what they’re trying to achieve in Birmingham. It’s a city that looks at enterprise, innovation and progression. That really aligns with us.“Rwanda views sports as an economic driver, a source of unity. It brings people together, not just in Rwanda but across the world.“The challenges we have with our neighbouring country have been there for over 30 years, and we continue to engage in diplomatic ways to solve the issue. We all want peace and prosperity for our people, for the region.”