Accusations of corruption against top FIFA officials keep piling up and now they're even being made by other top FIFA officials. Though these accusations damaged FIFA's already ravaged public image, brought calls for a postponement of the upcoming presidential election and sparked the possibility of a revote for the 2022 World Cup hosting duties, FIFA has been keen to do all their "investigations" in the privacy of their own back room. Why? Because they don't have to answer to anyone. They hold supreme power over their international kingdom.
Well, almost supreme power. There is the small matter of keeping their sponsors -- the corporations that hand over the vaults of cash that serve as FIFA's lifeblood -- happy. And it seems the so far ambivalent sponsors are finally realizing that all this bad press for FIFA is also bad press for them.
From the AP:
Asked about the problems facing FIFA ahead of the presidential election, Adidas said in a statement: "the negative tenor of the public debate is neither good for the sport of football nor for FIFA as an institution and its partners."
Keep in mind that Adidas has not only been a FIFA sponsor for more than 30 years, they're also FIFA's leading sponsor. Forget about angry journalists or angry fans or angry FIFA executives -- if the top sponsors are angry, that could actually mean consequences.
Somewhere, in the bowels of FIFA headquarters, a large robot is flailing its arms and saying, "Danger, Sepp Blatter, danger!"
UPDATE: According to Brian Straus of The Sporting News, FIFA sponsors Coca Cola and Visa really don't care at all about any of this. Which is depressing.
Photo: Getty
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