Emirates Airlines, the worlds largest international airline, recently announced they will not be renewing their sponsorship with FIFA, the first major company to do so. Emirates stated that FIFA’s sponsorship has not been up to “Emirates expectations”, following a series of corruption allegations regarding the 2018 and 2022 world cups. What Emirates is doing is distancing themselves from an organization they feel will tarnish their own reputation, and thus hurt their own business. The publicity Emirates received from sponsoring FIFA would have brought in large amounts of customers and revenues, so they obviously feel strongly about FIFA’s corruption allegations. Emirates is the first major company to not renew their sponsorship, but many other companies such as Coke, Sony, and ADIDAS renewed their sponsorships and plan to continue partnering with FIFA in the future. The benefit of partnering with FIFA is the broad customer base FIFA expands to. In the end, a companies decision comes down to profits. If a company believes severing ties with FIFA will be better for business, such as Emirates, they will remove endorsement. If the company believes FIFA will help them grow their business, like Coke, the company will continue sponsoring. For example the world cup generates “$5 billion dollars from television and marketing contracts” according to the national post. Ethics also plays a part in this. If FIFA is found to be corrupt, which many people believe, then the morally right decision is to pull all sponsorships and force FIFA to fix the way they operate. FIFA influences millions of peoples lives, and any corruption and injustice must be dealt with. Emirates is taking the lead in voicing their displeasure with FIFA, and hopefully many others join with the goal of forcing FIFA to change its ways.
An Emirates a380, the airlines flagship aircraft
Source: http://sports.nationalpost.com/2014/11/04/emirates-drops-fifa-sponsorship-over-corruption-allegations/
Media Source: http://www.wcvb.com/money/emirates-airline-launches-nonstop-service-to-dubai/24886782