Major Sponsorship Blow to FIFA?- Rupert Pratt and Ben Bradley

 

Reports have recently emerged that Emirates are seriously not considering renewing their record sponsorship of FIFA following the voting scandal that rocked the 2018 and 2022 bidding processes. Emirates has now commissioned research into its association with FIFA to see if there has been any long term damage to its brand; their current deal expires in 2014.

If Emirates, one of the World’s largest sponsors who put significant importance on sponsorship within their marketing mix (sponsorship accounts for between 40% and 60% of Emirates’ total marketing spend), decide not to renew, what will happen?

My guess is not much.

FIFA will obviously have a drop in revenues, might try to implement new processes and regulations to attack corruption in football, may reduce its price tag to new sponsors and current sponsors who may not be considering renewal, but ultimately one of the world’s largest rights holders (no matter what the public think of them) will continue to be sound commercially.

The draw of football as a global passion and platform to communicate to global audiences, as well as the prestige that comes with the World Cup, will always have interested parties. They may not come from the ‘traditional’ sources, i.e. the McDonalds and Coca Colas of this World, but as the World economy progresses with BRIC nations becoming richer, I for one would not be surprised if FIFA’s 6 lead commercial partners (assuming they keep the same structure) in a decade are more like the following:

–          Sberbank (Russian Bank)

–          Kingfisher (Indian conglomerate)

–          Embratel (Brazilian Telco)

–          Li Ning (Chinese apparel brand)

–          Pocari Sweat (Japanese sports drink)

–          Air Asia

Only time will tell…

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