| <No.593> |
| FIFA Sponsors Concerned About Corruption, But Few Pull Ads |
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Today, when news of a sports scandal breaks,
it becomes a problem
for every involved corporate sponsor and advertiser.
Their actions and inactions come at a heavy price.
"You've seen now
sponsors and advertisers have to react almost immediately
when news of a scandal breaks.
Before, in the past,
even in the past handful of years,
we've been able to see that
there can be a little bit of a waiting period,
you can really try to read the market,
you can try to read customers
and see how people are feeling.
Now, that no longer exists."
In the case of football's governing body FIFA,
the stakes are particularly high,
perhaps so high that no major sponsor has yet to pull out.
There is too much money and too many years of planning involved
for any sponsor to easily back down.
Meanwhile, four sports marketing executives
and an unnamed "major U.S. sportswear company" -
widely presumed to be Nike -
are at the center of investigations
into alleged bribes and kickbacks.
Economist Fredy Marin says
FIFA established
its own set of financial rules,
leaving corporations with little choice.
"The only thing that they had to do was accept it.
They say, 'OK, if you wanna advertise,
you have to pay extra fees,
you know to gain your rights.
Are you willing to do it?'
'Oh, there is another option?
No, so I have to do it.'"
Ethics and compliance expert Jeff Thinnes thinks otherwise.
He says corporations collectively carry heavy economic weight and influence,
and only need to understand
how to use it effectively.
"Of the roughly 12 tier-one and tier-two corporate sponsors,
if you look at their collective annual revenue,
you reach something like $450 billion.
I mean, if they were a country,
that would put them roughly 25 or 27th
on the list of GNI top countries in the world."
Thinnes says what is missing in the world of sports
is an "integrity pact" -
an agreement among competing corporations
to increase transparency
about how they pursue opportunities.
Ramon Taylor, VOA News, New York |
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