The website of AC Milan, an Italian football club, lists the club’s sponsors. Recently, a new name appeared between Clivet, a maker of air-conditioners, and Kumho, a tyre manufacturer: the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The deal, which is driven by Congo’s tourism ministry, may seem unusual. Congo’s annual GDP per person is less than $650. Many governments advise their citizens against travelling to the country, large swathes of which are riven by war and lawlessness. Why would it decide to sponsor a wealthy European football team?

The answer is diplomacy. Congo has been in conflict with neighbouring Rwanda for more than 30 years (a peace deal, signed in June, left out important details). Rwanda has been in the football business since 2018, when it made a sponsorship deal with Arsenal, a British team, said to be worth $10m a year. It later struck similar agreements with Paris Saint-Germain in France and Bayern Munich in Germany.

As fighting on the border escalated earlier this year Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, Congo’s foreign minister, pressed the clubs to end their deals with Rwanda, to no avail. So now Congo is instead trying to emulate its neighbour.

The deal is unlikely to attract many tourists. But it may bring other benefits. AC Milan has close links with Italy’s political establishment. The deal aligns with Italy’s new Africa policy, for which it earmarked €5.5bn ($6bn) last year, with Congo billed as a chief beneficiary. Announced just before Congo and Rwanda made peace in Washington, it may also please Donald Trump: an American firm bought a majority stake in AC Milan in 2022.

The benefits for AC Milan are less clear. The club did not disclose the value of the deal. It will probably see no money flow its way, reckons Simon Chadwick of Emlyon Business School in France. Even if it did, the amount would probably be negligible. Congo’s $18m tourism budget is dwarfed by AC Milan’s €457m in annual revenue.

Instead, aligning with a government with a less-than-stellar human-rights record may invite opprobrium, as Arsenal found when it partnered with Rwanda. Yet plans to refurbish sports facilities and set up a youth academy in Congo suggest the club is happy to accept that risk to bolster its reputation for social work—and its relationship with millions of African fans.