A Berlin amateur club now advertises Uganda – for under €10,000

Arsenal have done it. Bayern Munich did it. Now VfB Einheit zu Pankow, an eighth-division amateur side in northeast Berlin, is promoting a whole country: Uganda.

The club will carry the slogan "explore Uganda", the East African country's tourism campaign, on its shirts.

How did that happen?

It started with a toddler. A child of an employee at Uganda's embassy in Berlin plays in the club's youngest team, the G2 group. The father offered to help with funding, says club chairman Dirk Weißbach.

While other youth teams raise money with cake stalls and small sponsors, this one grew bigger. In the end the club signed a sponsorship deal with embassy representatives. According to Jessica Namuddu, who handles tourism promotion at the embassy, it costs less than 10,000 euros.

The first men's team and the youngest youth team will wear the logo. Weißbach says the money will go only towards team equipment, not towards climbing the leagues. For the club, a deal of this size is "absolutely uncharted territory".

Why is it such a curious story?

The club was founded in 1893 and has about 500 children and 32 teams. Uganda wants tourism to overtake agriculture as its main industry, and it is using sport to get there. In January it hosts the Africa Cup of Nations, the continent's biggest football tournament.

The Pankow deal is also a test run. Namuddu says it could lead to deals with bigger clubs later. A Ugandan TV football show has already called the sum too small. Her answer: an embassy simply doesn't have that much money.

Neighbouring Rwanda has spent many millions on shirt and sleeve deals with Arsenal (since 2021) and Bayern (since 2023). Bayern have since ended that partnership, reportedly worth around five million euros, after fan criticism of "sportswashing" (using sport to polish a country's image).

There are also human rights concerns in Uganda. Germany's Federal Foreign Office warns LGBTQ travellers about the country, which tightened its anti-homosexuality law in 2023. Weißbach declined to comment at length, saying the club is neutral under its statutes.

And where does Bayern come in again?

A second time, actually. Franz John, co-founder and first president of Bayern Munich, worked at the then VfB Pankow before moving to Schwabing in Munich.

The club tried twice to contact Bayern about this shared history. A letter to then-president Uli Hoeneß got no personal reply, only a short statement and a parcel of fan merchandise for the youth teams.

The research did have one result: since November 2025, the club owns a burial ground opposite the pitch, where longtime members can be laid to rest with a view of the stadium.