"As World Cup Nears, Brands Weigh Cost of Teaming With Qatar" 02 May 2022

Many brands, having paid millions of dollars in sponsorship fees, would have been expected to leverage the world’s most popular sporting event. But they have instead chosen to step away...

Danske Spil, the national lottery in Denmark which sponsors the Danish team, surrendered the space it paid for on the training gear so that it can be replaced by human rights messages during the World Cup. None of the other sponsors will take part in commercial activities in Qatar either, the Danish federation said, so the team’s participation will only be sporting and not to promote the organisers’ events.

Other participating teams are also treading lightly. US Soccer has held internal discussions about the messaging it can provide to players for when they face inevitable questions about human rights issues...

Ricardo Fort, a former marketing executive responsible for Coca-Cola’s relationship with FIFA, said many companies were calculating the effects of associating with Qatar, but he predicted that most would ultimately choose not to shy away from the tournament. “To me it feels like a localised issue,”