The Dutch fans involved in the 'ambush marketing' stunt. Photo: ryuha2009
Fifa claim the principle of fair play is as important off the pitch as it is on it in the world of football.
But in an era where money is the key element, just how ‘fair’ can the business of football be?
Author David Yallop in ’How They Stole the Game’ argues that Fifa do not regard football as a sport, but as a product to be marketed.
And in light of recent events, it is easy to see why.
Thirty-six female fans were thrown out of the Netherlands v Denmark match after Fifa officials accused them of promoting an unlicensed brand.
The women wore the same clothing, which made them stand out. While their mini-dresses did have small logos of Dutch beer company Bavaria, they were not spotted by TV cameras. Fifa though saw it differently.
Fifa spokesman Nicholas Maingot gave press a somewhat contradictory statement on the incident:
“What seems to have happened is that there was a clear ambush marketing activity by a Dutch brewery company.” (Nicholas Maingot, June 2010)
A Bavaria spokesman denied these claims and one of the women, Barbara Kastein, said in an interview with The Guardian that the group was innocent:
“The cameras kept focusing on us. We were singing and having a good time, but in the second half about 40 stewards surrounded us and forced us to leave. They pushed us up the stairs and one of the girls fell.” (Barbara Kastein, June 2010)
Kastein said the girls were then detained in an office for several hours and questioned by Fifa and police officials:
“They said we would be arrested and would stay in jail for six months. Girls were crying. It was bad. All this for wearing an orange dress?” (Barbara Kastein, June 2010)
Maingot told the press none of the group had been arrested, yet Kastein and another girl were arrested before being released on bail of £900 each. Fifa later dropped charges against the women.
Ambush marketing (free publicity at the expense of official sponsors) first appeared in football in 1994. It became a major problem at the 1998 World Cup, when 773 breaches of registered trademark were found.
McDonalds - a World Cup sponsor. Photo: bendignity
As a result, Fifa only allows promotional activity by companies that are official sponsors.
Fifa’s marketing partners include Adidas, Coca Cola, Sony and VISA. Then there are firms like Budweiser and McDonalds, who have paid Fifa US$1.2 billion to be World Cup sponsors.
To protect its investors, Fifa cracks down on large-scale attempts by enforcing a Rights Protection policy to prevent ploys like using fans as ‘walking advertisements’.
However, their handling of this latest stunt has led to Fifa being accused by some sections of the media of being overly aggressive in protecting these rights.
Fifa rely heavily on TV and marketing monies to fund major competitions like the World Cup.
According to Reuters, more than 60% of Fifa’s 2007-2010 revenue of $3.2billion comes from TV rights and about 30% from commercial marketing.
But the extent to which Fifa depends on cash from TV and marketing goes way deeper than football.
Dr. Joao Havelange offered Third World countries ‘benefits’ in return for votes to win the presidency in 1974. The Brazilian though did not have the money to keep his promises and needed help.
Horst Dassler. Photo: www.transparencyinsport.org
It came from Adidas owner Horst Dassler, who got monies for the former Fifa president from sponsorship deals in return for exclusive TV and marketing rights to the World Cup.
This money ensured that Havelange made good on his promises and stayed in power at Fifa.
Dassler, described as ‘the most powerful figure in world sport‘ by writer Andrew Jennings in ‘Foul!‘, also aided Sepp Blatter’s rise to power.
The Swiss was taken on by Dassler and worked at Adidas headquarters. Havelange was persuaded by the German to appoint Blatter as Fifa’s technical director in 1975 and then general secretary in 1981.
Fifa gave lucrative contracts for the World Cup to Dassler’s marketing agency and he became Fifa’s long-term marketing partner.
But why did Fifa give these rights to Dassler and not others? The answer: Dassler’s International Sports and Leisure (ISL) made secret payments to Fifa officials.
Evidence of this surfaced when Jennings discovered that an ISL bribe worth £400,000 was accidently sent to Fifa’s account. The payment was intended for the private account of a senior Fifa official, allegedly Havelange.
More proof came after ISL went bust in 2001. The company had borrowed too much and could not pay its debts.
ISL owed Fifa nearly £50million after failing to deliver monies from selling World Cup TV rights to Brazil’s Globo and Japan’s Denstu networks. This sum should have gone to Fifa, but it did not.
Blatter had no option but to report the crime to the authorities and they began digging.
Blatter: “I don’t speak about that”
In 2006, a court in Liechtenstein heard that the liquidator of the bankrupt ISL had secretly asked officials who took bribes to repay some of the money. Cash was repaid, but not by the officials - by Fifa!
Then in 2008, ISL executive Jean-Marie Weber admitted to bagging around $100million in bribes for Fifa officials to a court in Switzerland.
The same court also heard that Fifa members Nicholas Leoz and Ricardo Teixeira took bribes from ISL.
Jean-Marie Weber. Photo: www.africafoot.com
A year earlier, Fifa were in hot water after being found guilty of breaching its contract with World Cup sponsor MasterCard for VISA by a US court.
Executive committee member Chuck Blazer was accused of perjury and Jerome Valcke, then Fifa marketing manager, was branded a liar by the judge. Blatter paid MasterCard a settlement of £90million from Fifa funds.
Fifa have also been accused of criminality. In the BBC Panorama documentary ’FIFA and Coe‘, Jennings claims Fifa falsified documents by forging signatures on their agreement with VISA.
In sport, as in life, only money matters. Whether it is the Premiership or the World Cup, marketing is now the driving force in modern football.
