A nonbinding 2024 members' vote just cost Dortmund a reported €10M a year from Rheinmetall

Borussia Dortmund members voted two years ago against extending the club's sponsorship with arms manufacturer Rheinmetall. The vote wasn't binding, but on Friday it decided the outcome anyway. Dortmund and Rheinmetall announced that their deal, which media reports put at €10 million a year, will end when it expires on June 30, 2027.

Dortmund announced the three-year partnership with the Düsseldorf-based company in May 2024, and fans opposed it from the very begining. At the members' meeting in November 2024, they voted on a motion not to extend the contract beyond 2027. According to dpa, management wasn't bound by the result.

"We are aware of the criticism from our members and some of our fans," chief executive Carsten Cramer said in an interview published by the club. He stressed that the decision was made jointly with Rheinmetall and said the 2024 vote was "taken into account and taken seriously" in the talks.

Cramer didn't pretend the money was a side issue. "The income from the sponsorship contract will be missing from summer 2027, that's a fact," he said. "That reduces our financial room. We have to reprioritize planned investments and critically examine how we find sustainable solutions."

He also sent a message to members ahead of the annual meeting on Nov. 22, nine days after the announcement. "This case must remain an absolute exception," Cramer said, according to FAZ. "Otherwise we will massively endanger the trust we have worked hard to build in the business world."

There will be no more classic sponsorship, advertising boards or branding, Cramer said. But Rheinmetall chief executive Armin Papperger said the company will keep its box at the stadium and continue joint projects, including support for Ukrainian children at the club's football academy. "We will definitely remain connected," he said.

Club president Hans-Joachim Watzke had already signaled where this was heading. On the "Ausgerechnet" podcast, he said he had underestimated how many members told him they weren't against Rheinmetall, they just didn't want Borussia Dortmund advertising for a company that makes weapons, and that his job was to keep anything that divides the club away from it.