Aussie Government Ban On Huawei 5G Will Not Affect Sponsorships

Huawei sponsors several Aussie clubs including the NRL Canberra Raiders. GETTY IMAGES

Professional sporting sponsorships will not be affected by the federal government's decision to "ban Huawei from rolling out Australia's 5G network," according to the AAP. Australian Football League side Gold Coast and National Rugby League club Canberra Raiders have "lucrative" agreements with the Chinese-owned telecom, and Huawei confirmed "they will go ahead as planned." Huawei Corporate Affairs Dir Jeremy Mitchell said that it is "business as usual" and the company will make a call next year about "potentially extending the deals." The government decided the involvement of Huawei and ZTE Corp., another Chinese telecom, in the rollout "presented too much of a national security risk." Huawei publicly argued it would "never hand over Australian customer data to Chinese spy agencies," but the government said that "no combination of technical security controls sufficiently mitigated the risk" (AAP, 8/29).