Goodbye Evonik – Welcome Vodafone | OneFootball

From July 2006 to 2020, Evonik Industries AG, based in Essen, was the main sponsor of Borussia Dortmund. Initially – throughout the 2006/2007 season and on the first four matchdays of the 2007/2008 season – a stylised exclamation mark adorned the front of the shirts because the name of the company, which had emerged from the former Ruhrkohle AG, had not yet been finalised or announced.

On 14 September 2007, the Black & Yellows took to the pitch for the first time with the Evonik logo on their shirts. In keeping with their status, they secured a 3-0 home win against Champions League participants Werder Bremen. The main sponsor had promised a shirt to each of the 50,500 season ticket holders at the time – and kept its word. From 2020, the Evonik logo was then “only” placed on the “cup shirts” ( worn in the DFB-Pokal and the UEFA Champions League); in the Bundesliga, it had been replaced by the 1&1 logo.

“After almost 20 years on the pitch, we are moving to the sidelines. Together with BVB, we have achieved everything there is to achieve in football: league titles, cup wins, two Champions League finals. Drama, emotions and a true love of the game: Wembley, Anfield and the Bernabeu. That is the stuff that real football dreams are made of. It has been a shared successful journey that has taken BVB from the bottom of the Bundesliga to the top of European football. We have turned Evonik, which was initially unknown, into a popular brand with enormous appeal in Germany and internationally: in the public eye, among football fans and, above all, in our markets around the world,” write Evonik on their website. “The way Borussia Dortmund and Evonik have developed a partnership over 20 years based on mutual trust can undoubtedly be viewed as a model for successful sponsorship in sport,” emphasises Borussia Dortmund’s managing director Carsten Cramer.

Starting on Saturday, in the match against Mamelodi Sundowns, Borussia Dortmund will wear the logo of their new main sponsor, Vodafone, on their chests. Since Borussia Dortmund are the “away team” in this match, and their opponents from South Africa will be wearing their usual yellow kits, BVB will play in their all-white away kit – and therefore the Vodafone logo will be in red. Of course, the principle of the partnership announced at the launch still holds true: “Black belongs on yellow” – a black Vodafone logo on the yellow home shirts.

In the July issue of the member magazine BORUSSIA, Marcel de Groot, CEO of Vodafone Germany, emphasises: “This is not a compromise and was never a question for me. Yellow and red don’t go together visually. But of course we want the new jerseys to look good! It’s also a matter of respect for the fans and the club. The Vodafone logo is world-renowned. It makes no difference whether it’s in red or black. If the shirt is ever a different colour than yellow (meaning the away and alternate shirts, editor’s note), the logo can still be red on the jersey. I know very well from our partnership with Ajax how important it is to get the fans on board. Because the fans are what make a club.”