Eintracht Frankfurt have terminated the sponsoring agreement with Russian software company Kaspersky with immediate effect, the Bundesliga club said on Tuesday.

Eintracht Frankfurt said they acted upon a warning from Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).

It had said the Kaspersky antivirus software should no longer be used to minimise the danger of cyber attacks from Russia.

The BSI had also said that Russia’s threats towards the European Union, NATO and Germany after its invasion of Ukraine have led to a higher risk of such attacks.

“We’ve always made it clear that we base the continuation of our partnership with Kaspersky on facts and attitude, not on nationalities,” Eintracht Frankfurt’s Chief Executive Officer Axel Hellmann said in a statement.

“The BSI’s warning represents a decisive change in the factual situation and thus our confidence in the ability of Kaspersky’s products and services to provide protection.

“We’ve informed Kaspersky’s management that we’re terminating the sponsorship agreement with immediate effect,” he said. 

(dpa/NAN)