PSG Suspend Deal with Russian Sponsor

Sports

March 17th, 6:37am

Asharq Al-Awsat

Soccer Football - Ligue 1 - Stade de Reims v Paris St Germain - Stade Auguste-Delaune, Reims, France - August 29, 2021 Paris St Germain's Lionel Messi REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

Paris Saint-Germain have suspended their sponsorship deal with Russian sports betting firm Fonbet following the invasion of Ukraine, the club announced on Wednesday. Fonbet are the Ligue 1 side's only Russian sponsor, signing last year in a deal up to 2023. The club also has an academy for young footballers aged three to 15 in Moscow set up in 2019, which they plan to keep going despite Russia's war in Ukraine now in its third week. "The events going on at the moment have made us reconsider our ties," AFP quoted PSG as saying in a statement. "We have mutually decided to suspend our agreement with Fonbet until the end of the season," it added, saying it had found no reason to disrupt its work with the academy. Yet the club said it would "remain alert to measures that could be taken". Russia has been the target of an array of sporting sanctions since beginning the war with Ukraine, with FIFA expelling them from the World Cup play-offs where they were due to face Poland.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3536541/psg-suspend-deal-russian-sponsor