Sepp Blatter, the banned president of FIFA, called out the organization's American sponsors on Tuesday, saying they will not end their sponsorships even if reform demands are not met.
"Companies, commercial partners are queuing up to get in," Blatter told The Wall Street Journal. "If the Americans want to leave, others will come. But they don't want to get out ... They won't leave." ...
See the whole story here, courtesy of CNN Money.
Kicking Back Comments: As sad a comment as it is, Sepp seems to be 100% correct.
I personally take great stock in how people (or companies) act, not in what their press release says. I and scores of other folks have written about the saber rattling the mighty sponsors of FIFA have done saying how unacceptable FIFA's behavior has become. Yet, for all that rattling, there has been no action from many.
In this same way, there are several companies that should be applauded for taking action. Castrol, Johnson & Johnson, Continental, Sony, and Emirates had the courage to stand up and drop their sponsorship of FIFA. While some have stated in a few of those cases the sponsorship was up for renewal, the salient point is, they did not renew due in part to the deplorable mess that is FIFA.
Even in the face of the ethical challenges outright corruption (this is a brilliant video) and employment contract issues human right violations, several companies continue to fund these activities. Several others are also cued up ready to hand over the monies they have earned from customers as well.
At this point I can't classify their desire as less than knowingly supporting corruption and human rights violations. While each of these companies has ethical issues of their own (see ADIDAS, Coca-Cola, Gazprom, Hyudani, McDonalds, note that Visa to give then their due was recently voted one of the most ethical) their efforts to give monies to FIFA who propagates this corruption makes them no better.
Yet they line up and yes ... Sepp is right, they will not leave. So for all the noise they make about ethical behavior, they do nothing.
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