Aston Villa's president of business operations, Francesco Calvo, has defended the club's partnership with Visit Rwanda, insisting he is not a 'geopolitical expert' but that the club has a social responsibility to develop football globally. The multi-year front-of-shirt sponsor will bank Villa close to £20 million per season, an increase on the club's previous agreement with Betano. The deal follows Villa's lengthy search for a new partner after Premier League clubs collectively agreed in April 2023 to withdraw gambling sponsorship from the front of matchday shirts from the start of this season.
Challenging market for shirt sponsorships
Securing a new and equally lucrative sponsor proved challenging for top-flight clubs, but Calvo helped secure improved terms for Villa. 'It has been a difficult market for us and all of the clubs because of the betting ban coming into place on June 30,' the Italian explained. 'This has been a buyer's market, having 11 clubs wanting a new front of shirt sponsor and big clubs in that, and also, for the sleeve, like Man United and Chelsea. It’s been very competitive.'
'I do believe that we are the only team who managed not to decrease the value but increase it. We had to be patient and not panic to just sign any deal which comes in. There were plenty of negotiations ongoing. We had the privilege of having the ownership supporting us and clearly the performance in the Premier League drives attention to us and we were different to other clubs on the market in a good way. In the end, it proved to be good. It was difficult, but then no commercial deal is easy. We had 12 intense months, and we have got to the end.'
'I am always pragmatic on one side, but also ambitious on the other side. We didn’t put a limit on what could be achieved [value of the deal], but the market proved to be more difficult than we thought.'
Value and objectives of the partnership
Calvo added: 'We have been engaging with potential partners and for the same amount of money they could negotiate with two different clubs, for example. The money is not above our expectations, but we are extremely happy and satisfied. 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 those three objectives.'
'We believe that this partnership will open doors to increase our audience in Africa. We can say that it is Rwanda, but it is Africa. Definitely, Aston Villa will be seen in a different way in Africa. I am hearing people and experts talking about sub-Saharan Africa being where there will be a huge fanbase, the economy will grow and there will be investments into football. We believe this will put us in a position to capitalise on that. The partnership is also about developing football in Rwanda. We have tried to do that in Ivory Coast and Ghana, and Rwanda will be the next one.'
'We do see it as a chance to fulfil our mission, to generate money but also develop the sport. Clearly, representing a country is different to a commercial entity - and this give us different responsibilities, which gives us a privilege but also a commitment.'
Visit Rwanda's existing sponsorships and criticism
Visit Rwanda already has partnerships with Atletico Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich, as well as US sports franchises including the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Rams. Arsenal also featured Visit Rwanda on the sleeves of their shirts for eight seasons, from 2018 until the end of last season. Although the campaign has helped raise Rwanda’s global profile, the country’s government has faced criticism for investing heavily in sport as a means of improving its international image - a strategy critics have labelled 'sportswashing.' The Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch has previously said that Visit Rwanda partnerships help conceal the country’s 'abysmal track record' on human rights.
Calvo's response to geopolitical concerns
'I do say that Rwanda is definitely a very progressive country, very much focused on the future, from the way we have experienced that and the way we've been interacting with people,' Calvo said. 'I do believe that they use sport, for sure, to generate tourism, attention in Rwanda and to generate tourism and investments. That's for sure. So this is the way Rwanda uses the sponsorship.'
'Secondly, as I said, to develop football and football players in Rwanda, and also to try to inspire people from Rwanda by having their nation in top-class European football. So on the geopolitical side, I do believe that also we need to contextualise the role of football clubs. Yes, we do inspire people, but it's very difficult for us to have an opinion on matters which are much, much bigger than us, and we're not experts. So again, we play football. We want to inspire people. We want to develop players. We want to generate opportunities, and this is our role. I wouldn't go beyond that for us.'
Asked if it would have been easier to partner with a different sponsor, Calvo said: 'Definitely, any other partnership, whether it's a B2C company or B2B would have eventually been easier. But long term, if you want to build a long-term partnership, which one is where you can build the bigger value? And we think with this one we can build a bigger value. Despite the negative comments, yes, for sure. But we do believe we can build a bigger value, not the economical value, but a longer term partnership, a more reliable partner, developing football in Africa and building an audience in Africa.'
Calvo continued: 'We did our own research. Let's say we have two owners who have links with Rwanda, and it's not just about building business. Nassef is doing it for charity, so they have a connection with Rwanda, and they know the country even better than we do, definitely. So we did a check. We also spoke with other clubs to try to understand how the interaction with Rwanda is, and we kind of measure the people. Let's say how the people are, what their objectives are, how they interact. They don't deny that there are issues around them. They don't deny that there is negativity around them. But also they've been able to provide us with the answers that we were looking for, let's say, and then give us comfort that they operate in a proper way, so this is my personal comment. Let's say if we look at other modern countries, and I could name some others which have a longer history. Let's say, but they are not the most democratic ones.'
Future commercial plans for Aston Villa
On top of Villa’s new front-of-shirt deal, there are other levers which Calvo plans to pull to raise revenue and take advantage of the club’s impressive on-pitch performance under Unai Emery in recent years. 'We never had the training kit before, and that is something we are working on, a training kit partner which could also be the training ground, eventually, though I believe the training ground does not always have the biggest visibility so is always part of other assets as well,' Calvo explained.
'We have the objective of increasing the value of anything we have. We are trying to maximise the inventory we have available and to increase the values. The European success and the performance we are having is increasing our audience domestically and internationally. I think now we have stabilised ourselves as the seventh audience in the Premier League both domestically and internationally. That helps us a lot to position ourselves as a premium club.'
'Can we sell sponsorship on the sleeve? Yes, we are working on that. I would say we are already at a good stage. We are ready to announce soon. I would say, fairly satisfied overall about the commercial activity, because when I joined the club, the expectations from the owners was that we keep going.'
'It's clearly difficult to fill the gap or to start closing the gap versus the big six because they started to do the job 35 years ago. Let's say 1992 was 34 years ago with the creation of the Premier League. Then some others started later, like Chelsea, like City, but with a lot of money. So it's difficult to close the gap. But I think if everything goes well, this year we go up by 50 per cent versus last season, which for me is quite remarkable because the commercial team has been focused on selling, and that has been the mantra of the season. So I think we are all good.'
'We still have to sell, we still have some inventory available, but I think we are selling to fulfil the needs in the short term. But we are also working on the strategy to create the foundations of future growth. We are happy. On the sleeve, I'm not concerned because I would say we are almost there. It's a matter of days before we will be able to announce.'
'I don’t know if it will ever be closed. You want to say one day yes. There is no limit to the ambition and the hope. I will say it is difficult because they saturated the market to a certain extent and became the exclusive club of the big six where they have very strong commercial teams, with many brands. The entry level with them is higher than any club in the Premier League or Europe. Closing the gap, it is extremely difficult and challenging but consistency is what makes the difference. That and sporting performance. Unai is making my life much more difficult in a positive way because the success of the team is setting certain expectations.'
'While he is a genius and found a way to stabilise the team at the top of the Premier League, I am not a genius like him, so it is taking me more time and will take me more time. It is good because sporting performance is key, consistency is key and also sometimes thinking out of the box in a world which is very much standardised. All the clubs will do the same, they all hire the same people. We need to think out of the box and do things in a different way and take some risks as well.'
