The FIFA World Cup has traditionally been one of the most viewed sporting events in the world. According to FIFA, the finals of the 2014 FIFA World Cup which was played between Argentina and Germany had over 1 billion people watching the match.
It’s because of this high amount of viewership that sponsors from all over the world are usually working hard to make their brand appear in either the commercials or the banner space in stadiums as this has been an effective way to promote their respective products.
Things however, have taken a turn for the worse as the upcoming 2018 FIFA World Cup has struggled trying to attract a high amount of sponsors as they have historically been able to do.
The main reason of why sponsors just aren’t as motivated to pay money and put their brand and products in the approaching FIFA World Cup is due to all of the scandals that emerged involving the football authority and a number of briberies and corruption which ultimately led to the former FIFA president Sepp Blatter deciding to resign from his position and a number of executives being investigated and fined while some were even put to jail.
Almost all of the sponsorship slots of the 2014 FIFA World Cup were occupied 3 years before the worldwide competition had even initiated and the 2018 edition of the tournament is only 1 year away and only 10 sponsors have approached which is less than half of the previous edition.
Castrol, Continental, Sony and Emirates are a few of the sponsors that supported the 2014 FIFA World Cup but have decided to keep back off and stay at a distance away from this approaching 2018 tournament.