On January 1, 2025, Italian sportswear company Erreà will enter into a sponsorship contract with the Israel Football Association (IFA) as Israel escalates the unspeakable horrors of its genocide in Gaza.
Erreà will take over from the German multinational PUMA. In December 2023, PUMAleaked news that it would not be renewing its contract with the IFA following a 5-year global boycott campaign over the IFA’s complicity in Israel’s decades-long apartheid regime and military occupation, and more recently, its Gaza genocide.
The IFA includes in its official leagues and advocates, together with the Israeli government, to maintain teams based in illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
In response to concerns over the IFA contract expressed by its own business partners, Erreà is providing patently false information. Erreà falsely claims it has no contract or relationship with the IFA. The IFA’s annual report for the year 2023, published in October 2024, instead states that in August 2024 it signed a two-year sponsorship contract with Erreà, with the option to renew for another two years.
In addition, in April 2024 the IFA had announced that Erreà would become its new sponsor, posting two Erreà kit proposals on its website.
It is unsurprising that Erreà would want to distance itself from Israel as it commits a trifecta of atrocity crimes. Israel’s settlements on occupied Palestinian land constitute a war crime under international law. Its apartheid regime is a crime against humanity. And its genocide in Gaza is the crime of all crimes.
In addition to the serious reputational damage that will come from profiting from Israel’s crimes, Erreà risks legal action. Rulings by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) find that Israel is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza and that Israel’s military occupation is illegal. Both rulings from the World Court carry with them obligations not to contribute in any way to the crimes Israel is committing against Palestinians.
Erreà is already feeling the pressure to withdraw from the deal. The company has been blocking comments on its social media channels from those requesting explanations.
Erreà must immediately and publicly withdraw from its contract with the IFA in order to avoid being complicit in Israel’s war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Should Erreà go forward with this criminal and unethical sponsorship, we call for a targeted boycott campaign against it.