Bloomberg reported that Sony Corp has recently joined Adidas AG in leading the corporate sponsors to push Fédération Internationale de Football Association or FIFA, the global governing body of soccer, to launch a probe on Watar winning the right to host the World Cup in 2022. There has been allegations lodged against the country for winning the right to host one of the biggest sporting events in the world through improper means.
Yesterday, the Herzogenaurach, Germany-based Adidas saidm "The negative tenor of the public debate around FIFA at the moment is neither good for football nor for FIFA and its partners."
Sonny seconded by saying that it is expecting the soccer governing body to adhere to its principles.
Sony's Tokyo-based spokesman George Boyd said yesterday in an e-mailed statement, "As a FIFA partner, we expect these allegations to be investigated appropriately. We continue to expect FIFA to adhere to its principles of integrity, ethics and fair play across all aspects of its operation."
Bloomberg said two more of FIFA's biggest partners, Visa Inc and Coca-Cola Co, have expressed concern regarding the allegations after London-based Sunday Times published the charges for a second week, citing that the World Cup bid was surprisingly won by Qatar in December 2010. According to the newspaper, documents and e-mails leaked by an unnamed senior official of FIFA showed that former FIFA Vice President Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar had paid millions of dollars to soccer officials across te globe to endorse the country as host for the 2022 event. Qatar has since denied the allegations.
The soccer organization marketing director Thierry Weil said FIFA is in contact with commercial partners, including Adidas, Sony and Visa, over the allegations against Qatar. In an email statement yesterday, Weil said, "They have 100 percent confidence in the investigation currently being conducted by FIFA's independent Ethics Committee. Our sponsors have not requested anything that is not covered by the ongoing investigation."
