Sepp Blatter
A projection reading 'I am Charlie' in tribute to the victims of last week's shooting by gunmen at the offices of the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, is shown as FIFA President Sepp Blatter addresses the audience during the FIFA Ballon d'Or 2014 soccer awards ceremony at the Kongresshaus in Zurich January 12, 2015. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich

The deadline for nominations for the FIFA Presidential elections is next Thursday and as the campaign starts to take shape in an exclusive report by The Telegraph it has emerged that FIFA has lost three of its long term sponsors as they do not want to be associated with FIFA anymore.

Castrol had become FIFA sponsor back in 2008 and has been with FIFA for the 2010 as well as 2014 World Cups, Johnson & Johnson came on board in 2011 and backed the 2014 World Cup, Continental was the longest sponsor who started the sponsorship way back in 2003, they have been associated in three World Cups. Previously Sony and Emirates also terminated their backing of FIFA after supporting them for three World Cups.

It is estimated that FIFA earns more than £1 billion in sponsorship deals every four years. FIFA has been able to bring Gazprom, a Russian multinational, to partner them for the 2018 World Cup in Russia and a similar deal with Qatar Airways is also in the pipeline for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Other longtime sponsors like Adidas, Coca Cola, Hyundai/Kia and Visa have so far stayed put with the World Football Governing body.

So far there have been three candidates who have expressed their willingness to contest Sepp Blatter. Prince of Jordan Ali Bin Al-Hussein is the most impressive of the three and seems to be the only candidate to be able to get the backing of five national associations. Jerome Champagne has yet to get the requisite nominations and David Ginola is still not able to get any traction to start his campaign.

New FIFA Now, an organised campaign to bring out the toxicity inside FIFA and the corruption that it has become embroiled in, is wasting no opportunity in pointing out the fact that FIFA is losing backing in such a big way. “FIFA is a toxic brand. I think that’s why companies who care about their reputation don’t want to be associated with [it]”, Conservative MP Damina Collins told in behalf of the organisation.

To contact the author of this article email a.biswas@IBTimes.com.au

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