by Nathaniel Cooney in collaboration with Michael McAloon and Jan Maceczek
FIFA needs a large group of sponsors willing to contribute great sums of money to advertisements for every world cup. The search for these sponsors has generally been relatively simple, as the World Cup is the most watched sporting event around the world; however, for the Russia World Cup of 2018 this process has reached a crisis level. The lack of interest largely revolves around both the 2015 corruption scandal that engulfed FIFA, as well as Russia’s political scandals starting in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea.[1] For comparison, six months prior to the World Cup in Brazil, sponsorships were declared “sold out,” now in April before the Russia World Cup a large amount of the sponsorship spots remain vacant.[2]
Image from zanews.co.za
FIFA planned on having eight World Cup “Partners [those who pay the most],” eight “World Cup Sponsors,” and finally twenty regional, “World Cup Sponsors.[3]” These different levels of sponsors pay more or less for their equivalent level of exposure to the public, but the World Cup in Russia is nowhere near filling these planned positions. On the highest level, there are seven partners instead of the planned eight. This is predicted, as partners like Adidas, Coca-Cola, Hyundai-Kia, and Visa were unlikely to withdraw, and the Wanda-Group, Gazprom, and Qatar airways filled three of the remaining four spots. For World Cup Sponsors however, the FIFA website shows only five of the eight positions filled.[4] This is slightly worrying, but the main concern comes in the form of the regional supporters. Of the twenty spots, four are reserved for Russia, and then four for each of North and Central America, South America, Africa and the Middle East, and finally Asia.[5] On April 23rd, 2018, Alrosa, a state-controlled diamond mining company, joined Alfa-Bank, Rostelecom, and Russia Railways as the regional sponsors for the Russian allocation; however, the remaining sixteen spots are still empty.[6]
One of the largest concerns for the upcoming World Cup is the lack of interest among Russian companies to sponsor the World Cup. Russia currently has five sponsors, only due to the recent addition of Alrosa, which is three less than what Brazil had the winter before the World Cup began.[7] While it is important for local businesses to help sponsor the World Cup for monetary reasons, it is also key to develop interest within the country itself. Russia enters the World Cup as the lowest ranked team according to FIFA, and without the support of local businesses it is difficult to picture anywhere near the same amount of local excitement as was present in South Africa and Brazil. While the lack of Russian sponsors creates this concern, it is also important to note that all the Russian companies that have sponsored the World Cup are state-owned except Alfa-Bank. The nature of their ownership leads to additional questions on whether they are supporting the World Cup by choice of those who run it, or whether Putin’s nationalist government may have played a role.
While Putin’s government’s role in the World Cup is pure speculation at this point, it is important to consider the pressure it currently faces due to the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal, and former Russian Spy, and his daughter Yulia. The attempted attack occurred on March 4th, 2018, and there has been significant backlash since. For example, the United Kingdom, where soccer was founded, have called for action against Russia. First, Prime Minister Theresa May announced that neither British diplomats or the Royal Family would attend the World Cup, which is a rare occurrence.[8] Members of the Labor Party, including MP John Woodcock and MP Ian Austin, have openly asked to boycott the world cup unless it is moved, while Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, has also hinted at boycott. However, at this point the British government has not put pressure on FIFA, but it is safe to assume that the attitude of the government is dispersed throughout the country as well.[9] This mentality may be preventing British companies from investing into the Russian World Cup as they don’t want to appear to be disagreeing with the government.
Image from englishblog.com
This mentality is clearly not limited to the United Kingdom, as Poland, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Australia, and Japan have stated their intention to refuse invitations to Moscow for the World Cup.[10] Russia’s political actions cannot be separated from FIFA’s struggles to garner sponsorship for this tournament. At this moment, it is too difficult for companies that do not have a lasting relationship with FIFA to justify creating one, especially from the “Western World,” due to Russia’s political actions. The large sponsors from the “Western World,” including Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch, and Adidas, all have a standing relationship with FIFA, and have all even criticized FIFA publicly since the corruption scandal.[11] For example, Visa had the strongest statement when it threatened to halt their sponsorship unless FIFA could restore its reputation throughout the world. FIFA has fought to maintain these relationships, since if these companies leave a significant amount of the money will too.
During the Confederations Cup, a booze ban was placed on specific areas around the stadiums to try to prevent the fights that had occurred. This ban did not last however, as Budweiser is a key FIFA sponsor and was likely losing a significant amount of profits.[12] Russian officials tried to justify the decision by arguing that fans will still arrive drunk, regardless of whether it is served at games or not.[13] This argument is clearly flawed, as even if fans still arrive drunk they lack the ability to maintain or become even more drunk. This fight was repeated in Brazil, where FIFA angered many local officials by insisting that a beer ban not go through. The clear reason for why FIFA fights so hard against alcohol related measures to deal with football hooliganism is their relationship with Budweiser. Their relationship is one of FIFA’s longest standing, and thus FIFA has created problems with their hosts in order to ensure they can still sell their product.
FIFA’s issues with Russia’s political problems may be even worse by the 2022 World Cup, which is scheduled to occur in Qatar. Qatar faces multiple major international issues: the corruption involved in winning the bid, the government’s beliefs, and humanitarian concerns about the labor they are utilizing to prepare the country for the World Cup. In winning the world cup bid, Qatar has been accused of bribing officials, as well as utilizing its new “Aspire,” academy to sway FIFA officials.[14] These issues are part of what has tarnished FIFA’s reputation throughout the world, and has affected sponsorships during the Russian World Cup.
Artwork from the mirror.co.uk
The Qatar World Cup has drawn protests throughout the world, as many humanitarians do not think it is morally right to have the World Cup in Qatar. This is based on the fact that Qatar does not welcome everyone into its country, including banning homosexuals, as well as accusations involving the migrant labor that the country is currently using.[15] According to Amnesty International, migrant workers work up to 100 hours a week including in summer heat, and just under one worker dies a day because of these conditions.[16] These conditions have already led to protests in the United States, and the World Cup is still over four years away. As it approaches, unless the accusations are proven false, these protests are likely to only intensify, and it will likely lead to protesters calling for sponsors to withdraw their support. With the blatant humanitarian concerns, FIFA may find that some of the “Western,” sponsors actually follow through on their threats this time. Russia’s political scandals have made it difficult to find new sponsors, but Qatar’s actions will scare new sponsors away as well as giving FIFA’s long-standing sponsors serious questions about whether the profit will still be worth the publicity backlash.
Despite threats, FIFA’s main western sponsors have stated true to the organization as the profits were apparently too great; however, Russia’s political actions as well as FIFA’s diminished reputation are making it difficult for new sponsorship deals to be reached. Until FIFA rebuilds its reputation after the corruption scandal, it will already face enough challenges in garnering new sponsors that countries such as Russia and Qatar, which suffer from political scandals, become difficult to sell sponsorships for.
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How to cite:
“Sponsorship and the Looming Crisis for FIFA,” Written by Nathaniel Cooney (2018). Men’s World Cup 2018 Guide, Soccer Politics Blog, Duke University, https://wp.me/P2Bq6D-80x
References:
[1] http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/01/news/fifa-sponsors-russia-2018/index.html
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/28/sports/soccer/world-cup-sponsors-russia-2018.html
[3] http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/01/news/fifa-sponsors-russia-2018/index.html
[4] https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/organisation/partners/
[5] https://www.foxsports.com/soccer/story/fifa-signs-russian-diamond-miner-as-world-cup-sponsor-042318
[6] https://www.foxsports.com/soccer/story/fifa-signs-russian-diamond-miner-as-world-cup-sponsor-042318
[7] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/28/sports/soccer/world-cup-sponsors-russia-2018.html
[8] https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-a-poisoned-russian-spy-could-cost-putin-the-world-cup
[9] https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-a-poisoned-russian-spy-could-cost-putin-the-world-cup
[10] https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5906845/russia-2018-world-cup-spy-poisoning-country-boycott/
[11] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-soccer-fifa-sponsors/visa-threatens-to-ditch-fifa-as-sponsor-dismay-mounts-idUSKBN0OC2UH20150528
[12] https://wtop.com/government/2017/06/russians-hit-the-bar-as-beer-ban-lifted-for-confed-cup/
[13] https://wtop.com/government/2017/06/russians-hit-the-bar-as-beer-ban-lifted-for-confed-cup/
[14] https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/40412928
[15] http://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/la-sp-soccer-baxter-20150322-story.html
[16] http://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/la-sp-soccer-baxter-20150322-story.html
