The World Cup in Qatar that is already on the horizon will raise the curtain next Sunday wrapped in the dense fog of controversy . And what should be a phenomenal showcase for brands is becoming a high-risk sport for the sponsors involved in the tournament. And the next World Cup will start with the long and disastrous shadow of an eventual boycott on its heels. Not in vain, in recent weeks multiple initiatives have emerged calling for the boycott of a competition in whose pharaonic works around 6,500 people would have lost their lives (a fact over which FIFA prefers to cover a thick veil). However, only four sponsors (adidas, Coca-Cola , InBev/Budweiser and McDonald’s) heeded that call. The ten remaining sponsors, mostly from Asia, have not reacted to date.
The World Cup in Qatar may not be the economic success
Even so, at a time when purpose is the particular north star of brands, for the sponsors of the World Cup in Qatar it is a (potentially deadly) risk category email list to be associated with issues as thorny as the violation of human rights . And this was already evident earlier this year at the Beijing Winter Olympic Games. Faced with the next World Cup, brands are somewhat between a rock and a hard place, but as money outweighs purpose in this case (because there is too much at stake), sponsors will go to Qatar trying to swim and put away the clothes (or in other words, taking advantage of the competition, but trying to limit possible damage). Not in vain, most of the advertising campaigns born in the heat of the World Cup avoid referring specifically to the host country (for health care).
Sponsors expect from this competition.
The caution of the brands will probably be the one that scores the most goals in the next World Cup in Qatar (even snatching the title of top USA CFO scorer from the brightest ball stars on the face of the Earth). In a context in which inflation continues to skyrocket and threats of boycotts are increasingly vociferous, consumers (those based in the West at least) will be less willing to invest heavily in T-shirts and “merchandising” products associated with the World Cup. Already at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, where the violation of human rights also grabbed a good number of headlines, FIFA sold only half of the sponsors ‘ packages . And in Qatar only Asian fans could eventually spur the revenue reaped by sponsors.
