FIFA Corruption Scandal: 7 Most Damning Allegations Ever

One person who has stood up and defended Blatter after the arrests in Switzerland was Vladimir Putin. Whilst one could certainly argue that Putin might want to show solidarity after his country was awarded the 2018 World Cup, a cursory glance at the list of FIFA’s 6 sponsors makes even more sense.

Five of those sponsors are Budweiser, Visa, Hyundai/Kia Motors, Adidas and Coca Cola. They all they sell products to a mass civilian consumer base. The final sponsor however is Russian state-owned oil and gas corporation Gazprom.

Gazprom deals with Governments and energy companies, and occasionally plunges people in Ukraine into gasless existence during the winter.

FIFA makes roughly 90% of its money from the World Cup. The current 15-year Coca Cola deal with FIFA is worth half a billion dollars. Some of this money is appropriated wisely in the provision of facilities and footballing infrastructure where it is needed most, yes, but FIFA sits on over $1 billion as an “in case we need it” fund. That is more than the GDP of Guinea-Bissau.

While that is sound business practice, this pandering to their sponsors became political when FIFA sent an envoy to Brazil before the 2014 World Cup to tell (not ask) them pointedly that they had to change their law banning alcohol in stadiums – a law passed to protect people’s health and prevent unpleasant scenes. And the worst thing was, Brazil did it.