Adidas Bans Scientology

[trustbutverify]

What if adidas ecided to not support Catholicism, or interracial marriages?

It would turn out, and rather quickly, that those clauses of the contract were illegal, and thus void. adidas is a producer of sports gear, their business is not the promotion of beliefs or values - thus, they are restricted on the types of beliefs and values they can force on other people. (If adidas was a church or a political party, this would be different.)

I believe the situation is not quite as clear as the English speaking Wikipedia makes it out to be - whether Scientology is a recognized religious belief is very much up for debate, and I'm not aware of an authoritative decision on the matter. (I might just not be up to date; wouldn't surprise me in the least...) But as of now, Scientology has not been banned. It operates legally in Germany, and it is perfectly legal to join them, too.

It might turn out that sponsorships deals can be terminated for reasons that, e.g. normal employment could not, or that adidas, specifically, is in the buisness of promoting values - but none of that is obvious.

Nobody can force them to support anyone, of course. But they might not be entirely free to step back from their contractual commitments for whatever reasons they chose.

Could they step back from someone who joins the KKK?

 

[tsig]

According to German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel, any football player sponsored by Adidas who joins Scientology will have his contract with them terminated.
It sits alongside similar clauses for drug convictions and joining organisations that are monitored by the intelligence services.
This particular example was noticed in an unspecified Bayern Munich player's contract.

Adidas have apparently claimed that it's a standard clause in their contracts and that Scientology is at odds with it's fundamental values of diversity and tolerance.

Is this a bit of a slippery slope or is it an acceptable stance?

If you don't like the contract, don't sign it. Is anyone forcing football players to accept Adidas sponsorship?

 

[Kage]

Depends what you mean by 'Christianity' really. For example, Adidas may be supportive of a Christian humanitarian group like World Vision (as an example off the top of my head, I don't actualy know if Adidas support Word Vision or not) while being totaly opposed to a Christian hate group such as the Westboro Baptist Church.

The term 'Christianity' covers a very wide range of different denominations and groups with very different beliefs and methods of operation.

Scientology on the other hand hasn't being going long enough to develop into such diversity.

Scientology does have different groups, such as the free zone, who have different beliefs and leadership or lack thereof, and could be considered separate sects as above. Certainly not the same level of diversity.