Last Wednesday, Denmark unveiled their kit for this winter’s World Cup in Qatar.
Manufactured by Danish company Hummel, which also supplies kits for Premier League clubs Everton and Southampton, the shirts immediately attracted attention.
While Hummel is usually known for its trademark chevron design, these kits are intended to protest against the host nation for the World Cup, Qatar, which is controversial for the reasons outlined in this article.
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The badges of both the national team and Hummel are camouflaged against the colour of the kit, with the company saying it does not “wish to be visible during a tournament that has cost thousands of people their lives”.
An all-black third kit “in the colour of mourning” marks the death of migrant workers involved in preparations for the World Cup.
In a press release, Hummel said: “We support the Danish national team all the way, but that isn’t the same as supporting Qatar as a host nation.”
The Supreme Committee, who are organising the World Cup, have disputed Hummel’s claim that “the tournament has cost thousands of people their lives”, saying they “whole-heartedly reject” the “trivialising” of their “genuine commitment to protect the health and safety of the 30,000 workers” who built the World Cup stadiums and related projects.
However, questions immediately emerged. The Athletic sent Hummel a list of queries, including whether the company would be profiting from the shirt, why Hummel had previously partnered with Qatari clubs, and whether it would work with other teams with questionable human rights records.
In response, Hummel owner Christian Stadil invited The Athletic to speak with him before Southampton played Everton on Saturday. Here is that conversation.
Hummel owner Christian Stadil (left) and CEO Allan Vad NielsenChristian, why did you decide to make this statement, and why this design?
“We’ve had a lot of ideas, which have been discussed for at least the last year and a half, together with the Danish Football Association (DFA). What we found out quite fast is that the World Cup, of course, is about football.
“But through talking to Amnesty, we know there’s a lot of challenges related to human rights. It’s not just in Qatar — look at Russia! We did a lot of activity there, particularly to do with LGBT rights, standing in the stadium in Moscow, making up a rainbow flag.
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“Qatar is similar to this. We have a window to communicate, so rather than flying our logo, and the bright colours of the flag, we wanted to do something a little different. Not to take away from the football, but to make people stop for a few seconds, a few minutes, to contemplate the whole process of holding the World Cup in Qatar.
“We’ve also said that we will not go there. I won’t go, our CEO won’t go, none of our board of directors. Only our liaison with the national team, part of the DFA (the Danish Football Association), will go.
This shirt carries with it a message.
We don’t wish to be visible during a tournament that has cost thousands of people their lives.
We support the Danish national team all the way, but that isn’t the same as supporting Qatar as a host nation. pic.twitter.com/7bgMgK7WzS
— hummel (@hummel1923) September 28, 2022
“We also said that instead of having our logo making a lot of noise on the pitch, then we should remove it, more or less. We still want to be the one who’s behind the message, but we wanted to stress that message. It’s why on all three kits — the red, white, and black — you cannot see the logo.
“We were very surprised with the attention it received. Two days ago, the leading Danish newspaper called me, and said ‘Christian, isn’t this a bit boring with the plain red and the black? Couldn’t you have added more things?’.
“It was strange for me as an owner to see it for the first time. I’m also a commercial guy, and you saw us playing against France, who had the big Nike swoosh, and then I couldn’t see our own logo! But we believe that’s the best decision. It was meant as a position, as a sign, as a vision for stopping and pausing for reflection on human rights. That was the idea behind the kit.”
What concepts were rejected?
“We looked at putting a black band around the arm, like a captain’s armband, or a mourning band. However, you can roll up the sleeve of a jersey.
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“In the end, it wasn’t that the DFA didn’t want it, or FIFA (which has regulations on political symbols on shirts), but it came down to the fact that we didn’t want to make the players hostages.
“Imagine a young kid, a 20-year-old, maybe playing for a Premier League team with links to Qatar or another Middle Eastern team. You suddenly make him a hostage, he has to explain his decision on whether to roll up a sleeve or roll it down again. It’s a very difficult situation for them — we didn’t want to put them in that situation.
“We wanted a kit which sent a signal, but also a kit for the whole team, so they didn’t have to think about anything, and a kit which also sent a signal, but not a signal that was too provocative.
“It needed to be a little more subtle. Look at the black kit — it’s still a nice kit. We were also considering writing messages into the neck of the jersey, having things printed… but it really came down to us not wanting to make the players hostages in terms of what they signal.”
Your logo might not be visible, but Hummel is still at the World Cup as a manufacturer. Will you be profiting from the shirt?
“It’s difficult to navigate through this world when you want to make a difference, but you’re also a commercial company. For context, we’ve got into quite an extensive collaboration with Amnesty International, for at least two years. They’re going to help us become a company who can better navigate where to manufacture our clothes, where to produce, where to avoid.
“But we’ve also made a kit together, with joint branding, where they take our bee logo, and add it to the barbed wire of the Amnesty logo. We’ll be donating all the profits from that collaboration to Amnesty.
“We also have an agreement that we’ll give one per cent of our revenue from all online sales to Amnesty, which included the Denmark kit, and that will hopefully add up to a lot of money. There will be two revenue streams, and we will be disappointed if it produces less than one million krone (£118,232).”
Have the Qatari organisers responded?
“They didn’t contact us directly, but through the DFA. They weren’t in agreement with what we stated — that thousands of workers had died. We said we were open to a meeting with them, because I believe — it’s my take on life — that nothing is black or white.
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“We should have a talk with the Supreme Committee, hear what they’re saying, and take it from there. It’s a work-in-progress.”
Hummel has taken an ethical stance as the kit manufacturer for the Danish national team. Are there certain clubs you wouldn’t supply because of their human rights record?
“It’s a great question. We’ve not reached a conclusion on this. We are a commercial company, we are for profit, but we also have a platform which we want to use.
“What does this entail? It could influence our relationships — most of the things we do, we want to endure. We try to work with clubs who are not only commercial, of course we want the branding, but also a team which has values, commonality with ourselves, that want to do business.
“If there is a club that has sponsors or backers from questionable backgrounds, it could impact our willingness to work with them. At the end, it’s our responsibility, my own, as the owner, but I think we can learn a lot.
“Answering now, based on what I know now, what’s happening in the world, I would say that it will influence our choice. Does this mean that we’d turn down a deal from one of the best teams in the Premier League, even if they have a sponsor or owner with problematic aspects? I couldn’t answer that now. We are not made out of wood.”
You’ve previously supplied the shirt to a Qatari club side? Is that compatible with your stance towards the World Cup?
“We have in the past sponsored a Qatari club. We’re for sure not perfect. We are in a process, which really kicked off when Allan (Vad Nielsen) came as partner and CEO five years ago. And so it’s an ongoing process.
“It’s not a black and white thing. Would I think that we are going to sponsor a Qatari team tomorrow? No. In the future? I would think not. But we also have commercial brands, we also want to sell some jerseys.
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“If a great businessman from Qatar, who wants to be a good guy, wants to make a common project, then maybe we would do something. But as for now, I think it would be a little bit strange because of the jersey and the whole narrative around it. I think it would be difficult, but I can tell you, when we choose a club today, our common values are part of the criteria. And that’s just a fact.
“Let’s say we didn’t go to Qatar — because that’s also a question that we had — then we wouldn’t be here, because nobody would have heard. So we’ve got to be on the inside and create change. But is it going to have consequences? Probably.
“If we were worried (about the past relationship with the Qatari club), the end result could be that none of us, as humans, as companies, as brands, do anything except become richer. We wouldn’t dare. Let’s try something, do something, learn from it. We want to change the world through sport. That’s our purpose.”
(Top image: Getty Images)
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