McDonald's joins Coca-Cola and Visa in calling for Fifa change
McDonald’s has become the latest corporate sponsor of Fifa to urge the embattled football organisation to change.
The fast food company has joined the likes of Coca-Cola, Visa, Adidas and Emirates, the airline operator, in expressing concern following the emergence of corruption allegations at the Swiss-based soccer administrator.
Its president, Sepp Blatter, has come in for criticism from the likes of the English Football Association which this week tried to delay the presidential elections which Blatter won unopposed.
A statement from McDonald's said: “We continue to encourage FIFA and its leadership to reform and strengthen the game of football around the world and expect that the current issues will be resolved in the best interest of the game."
Controversy has centred on the successful Qatari bid for the 2022 World Cup which was awarded to the desert kingdom eariler this year. Blatter has suggested that future World Cup bids could be decided by a vote of its 208 member congress and has hinted at changes to the organisation's corporate governance.
However, corporate sponsors, which generate a large part of Fifa's annual income, which stood at $1.3bn (£795m) last year, are understood to be keen to see a significant shake-up in the way Fifa is organised to improve transparancy and disclosure. They remain worried that the corruption allegations swirling around Fifa will damage the game's global image which represents a key part of sponsors' marketing spend.