BERLIN, 19 Apr. (dpa/EP) –
The insurance company Signal Iduna Gruppe, Borussia Dortmund’s main sponsor, criticized this Wednesday that the team’s supporters did not respect the official name of their stadium during a recent match against Union Berlin in the Bundesliga.
On April 8, while the duel that ended in a 2-1 victory over the Berlin team was being played, a group of Borussia Dortmund fans unfurled a huge banner in the south stand of Signal Iduna Park with the motto “Forever Westfalenstadion”.
“To me, that is unacceptable when you think about how we have supported this team for a long time and stood by it when others did not want to invest a penny,” Ulrich Leitermann, chief executive of the insurance company, told the Ruhr newspaper. Nachrichten’.
Home fans used the banner, bearing the name of the stadium prior to sponsorship, to celebrate the anniversary of its inauguration in April 1974. Signal Iduna is one of Germany’s leading financial services companies and its alliance with Borussia Dortmund for the Stadium name extends to June 2031.
“For us, that was very upsetting,” Leitermann stressed, adding that he expected greater acceptance of the sponsorship from fans. “I would like to see an appreciative approach that takes into account both interests,” he commented on it.