FIFA sponsors react after Blatter re-elected

FIFA sponsors have said they want swift action to restore the football governing body’s reputation, after Sepp Blatter was re-elected president.

McDonald’s, Coco-Cola and Adidas have all issued statements calling for FIFA to take steps to win back trust.

The companies are among a host of multi-national giants who are keen to maintain their reputations.

Sponsors have made known their concerns about the recent arrests by the US Justice Department of FIFA executives.

Visa had been particularly vociferous, warning that unless the global governing body made “changes now”, it would “reassess” its sponsorship.

This time, Visa said it had nothing further to add to its previous statement.

Other key sponsors issued similarly worded statements.

McDonald’s said: “Our expectation is that FIFA will now act quickly, decisively and transparently to restore its reputation for both the good of the game and for fans worldwide who expect nothing less. The world expects concrete actions and so do we.”

“Fifa must now seize the opportunity to begin winning back the trust it has lost. We urge Fifa to take concrete actions to fully address all of the issues that have been raised, in a swift and transparent manner,” a Coca-Cola statement said:

Adidas said: ‘As stated before, we expect FIFA to continue to establish and follow transparent compliance standards in everything they do.”

For the four years of the last “World Cup cycle”, from 2011 to 2014, FIFA’s six top-tier Global Partners (as was – there are now five) paid a total of $177m (£116m) annually, which means each partner paid roughly $30m a year for this status.

Source: BBC News