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The topic of Huawei and sponsorship has been the subject of debate several times in recent years. Among other things, artist Zara Larsson interrupted her collaboration with the company this summer.
– When I look back, it wasn’t the smartest deal I made in my career. Everyone who knows me knows that I stand for human rights, Larsson said at the time.
Huawei themselves deny having participated in espionage activities, but connections with the communist regime have led the company to be excluded from the Swedish expansion of 5G networks on the advice of Säpo. And when the Washington Post recently revealed that Huawei had developed a facial recognition system, which is used to monitor the Uyghur Muslim minority, French soccer star Antoine Griezmann decided to break their agreement with immediate effect.
Norwegian ski star Therese Johaug broke her contract with Huawei as recently as the other day, and also swimming star Sarah Sjöström recently decided not to extend her contract.
Therefore, it may seem unexpected that Sävehof is initiating a collaboration.
– We know that the issue is controversial. It is difficult to choose which countries you can travel to and with which you can cooperate. Can it be done with Belarus or with Russia? There is a lot of discussion and what we do now is we do a collaboration for six months, and then we do an evaluation later, says club director Stefan Albrechtson.
“I did a lot of my own research”
In early December, Sävehof announced the new agreement on its website:
“Sävehof is proud to present the latest club member: Huawei Enterprise Sweden. Huawei has been in Sweden for 20 years and the business side works with business solutions such as servers, storage, data centers, networks and artificial intelligence. Welcome Huawei! “
Stefan Albrechtson says the club has raised issues that have caused others to walk away from working with the company.
– We have had these discussions, precisely with regard to human rights. We will have to do an evaluation in six months and if it is not how we want it to be, we will not be able to extend it.
Have you asked Huawei about these things?
– Yes, they are ready. We received the response that they want to be independent and that they want an open and sustainable society. We have spoken with both Chinese and Swedish representatives.
Have you done your own research on Huawei?
– Yes, we have tried to familiarize ourselves with it and have done a lot of research for ourselves. So maybe something else is being said from a higher angle, but you want to form your own opinion on how to handle the problem. It is clear that one becomes thoughtful when reading about the Muslim population and also what is happening in Hong Kong. But we want to make the decision ourselves on whether there will be an extension in the future, says Stefan Albrechtson.
Don’t you see any risk of this creating ill will for the association?
– Yeah, maybe you can get that. But we haven’t received it yet. And there are as many companies from China as possible, so we couldn’t trade with them at all. It’s often sports that have to make the decision, while others do business with each other. Can you go to dictatorships or not, and what is a dictatorship? Knowing exactly is not easy, it is a great question. I know Huawei is on the list now, but there are many other companies that are too.
However, Huawei in particular has been heavily criticized, especially in terms of its involvement in treating Uyghurs.
– Yes, and that’s why we feel like we drive six months. It was a much bigger proposition from the beginning. We wanted to tone it down and see where this lands in the debate, says Albrechtson.
How is it then that a large Chinese company chooses to sponsor Sävehof?
– We really don’t know. It is our seller who has contact with Huawei. They have talked and talked a bit and have come up with something.
How much money does Sävehof receive for the collaboration?
– They are not large sums. We are talking about traditional prices that everyone pays for the same areas. These are amounts paid by other sponsors. The exposure will take place through the LED signs around the field. They won’t be seen on match jerseys and things like that, says Stefan Albrechtson.
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