Emirates Airline Pulls Out Of Backing FIFA And Could Be Followed By Sony

Those campaigning for Fifa reform amid endless allegations of cronyism and corruption have long hoped that pressure from sponsors could finally lead to meaningful change. 

But it is understood that potential replacements for Emirates and Sony have already been lined up in the shape of Qatar Air, the national carrier of the country that will controversially host the 2022 World Cup, and Samsung.

The Korean electronics giant could replace Sony if the Japanese company decides against renewing a deal that contributes to the £900m that pours into Fifa’s coffers from sponsors over each four year cycle.

In June, sponsors including Sony, Adidas and Visa demanded that new allegations of corruptions concerning the bidding process for 2022 World Cup be taken seriously. But despite admitting that the “negative tenor of the public debate” around Fifa was bad for football, Adidas renewed its sponsorship until 2030.

For all the bad publicity surrounding Fifa’s scandal hit executive committee and the bidding process that led to the 2018 World Cup being awarded to Russia and the 2022 tournament to Qatar, it has continued to go commercially from strength to strength. Even if a sponsor falls away, a direct rival is usually only too keen to step up and take its place.

Emirates said only that the contract proposal did not meet with its expectations and Fifa said it had known since 2012 that the airline was not going to renew.

But the Conservative MP Damian Collins said he hoped the Emirates decision would be the first of many among sponsors starting to question Fifa’s credibility.

“When sponsors start to become wary, that is where Fifa will start to hurt – it’s an organisation that is set up to make as much money as possible out of football. That’s something they will take notice of,” he said.

The latest meeting of a taskforce set up to draw up an international match calendar for 2018 to 2024, hastily convened after Sepp Blatter’s plan to unilaterally move the Qatar World Cup to November 2022 to avoid the searing summer heat was opposed by broadcasting partners and European leagues, narrowed the debate down to two main options.

A European Clubs Association presentation proposed May 2022 as a new option in a bid to minimise disruption.

But the Qatar 2022 chief executive Hassan al-Thawadi expressed a preference for a winter tournament for the first time and Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke said: “We are getting closer to narrowing the dates for the Fifa World Cup to two options – January/February 2022 or November/December 2022.”

The task force, chaired by Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, will meet again early next year with a decision expected by spring 2015.

[Guardian]