Aston Villa supporters' Visit Rwanda concerns are about optics, not details

Villa have announced a record shirt sponsorship deal that could be worth £20 million per season

Jul 14, 2026

Aston Villa have confirmed the partnership news many supporters have been dreading: Visit Rwanda is the club’s new front-of-shirt sponsor.

Villa released their new adidas home kit without a sponsor and the addition of Visit Rwanda is a rightly – though not universally – unpopular one. Seeing other clubs criticised for having its logo on their sleeves should have deterred Villa but we are where we are.

I don’t speak for everyone. I don’t pretend to and I wouldn’t want to. But I’m disgusted by this agreement and Villa’s part in it. Judging by the immediate reaction online, I’m not alone.

It goes without saying that a sizeable rump of Villa supporters will not care whose logo is on the front of the team’s shirts.

Some just aren’t bothered. Some are only interested in the financial arrangement, which, at a reported £20 million per season if incentives are met, is a record deal for Villa at a time when revenue is more important than ever.

I get all that. I do. Really, I do. It’s just different than my perspective.

Visit Rwanda and Villa’s values

“Alongside tourism, Rwanda has a growing reputation as a destination for business, investment, major events and sport,” reads Villa’s official announcement, as if to reassure us all that this agreement does in fact amount to the club peddling its arse.

It’s quite a start for Francesco Calvo, Villa’s President of Business Operations, who has clearly fulfilled what’s being asked of him by securing this sponsorship. However you look at it, Villa have achieved their record deal just as a ban on the game’s most lucrative source of shirt sponsorship money comes into force.

But did it have to be this? Did it really have to be this? Rwanda is a widely condemned regime and a partnership that demands Villa blow this level of smoke on day one is unedifying to say the least.

Our club is worth a little bit less today than it was yesterday. Do not be in any doubt about that.

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It’s a matter of opinion but this deal is not in line with what I personally want Villa to be.

I don’t have crazy expectations about the club being more good than evil or being carbon-neutral or applying for B Corp or any of that shit. I just want to believe that the people in charge of Villa’s direction intend to do right by the club and represent it with some class.

And you know what, I do believe that. I still believe that. Maybe that’s why I think this shirt sponsorship is just a real shame.

Problematic partnership requirements

It’s important to remember that this isn’t just a logo on a football shirt. These partnerships are integrated into the marketing operations of both the club and the partner.

Think about all the places you’ve seen Villa’s name aligned with Betano. All the social media and digital content, with Villa supporting Betano’s work and Betano capitalising on its access to the club and its supporters.

“There is a great range and depth of opportunities for collaboration, learning and innovation and we are looking forward to working with Visit Rwanda to deliver meaningful activations through tourism, investment and sporting development,” says Calvo.

There’s no confirmation of this from either party but let’s be absolutely clear that ‘activations’ in the sponsorship world includes Visit Rwanda – the national tourism brand of Rwanda, let’s not forget – having some level of access to Villa’s first team players.

Rwanda’s football marketing activity through Visit Rwanda has been labelled by critics as sportswashing on behalf of a regime with ‘an abysmal track record’ on human rights. Still, at least it’s the new coffee partner too.

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Naturally, there are details behind that Human Rights Watch assessment, some of them disputed by Rwanda.

I’m neither educated enough nor interested enough to get under the skin of this thing – I’m happy enough to accept the not-very-impartial basic analysis of experts I broadly agree with. Balance is a fallacy.

The thing is, the details aren’t really what matters in the Villa context anyway, at least not in the sense that everyone is ever going to agree on them.

What matters, I think, is what this deal signifies about Villa, about the club’s place in civilisation, and about its willingness to stand up against football’s tidal wave of awful influence.

You might not care about that. That’s up to you. I do care, not enough to disown Villa or want a change of ownership but certainly enough to be pissed off and avoid buying a shirt.

Football is football. There’s bad money everywhere and no team is going to succeed without the owners getting their hands dirty.

I’m not asking anyone to hold any particular opinion or feel any specific way about Villa’s interaction with that truth but I’d always prefer them to rise above, at least a little bit, in order to protect the club’s name.

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