Football fans - walk away (unless you're being anti-sexist)

Photo: Moazzam Brohi

In an earlier blog I highlighted the Facebook campaign calling for a boycott of FIFA's main sponsors. But according to analysis today from the Globe and Mail, sponsors aint gonna walk away from FIFA unless the fans do too. Some quotes:

“People are not turning in their tickets to the Women’s World Cup, or saying they’re not going to watch the matches on TV. At the end of the day, the sponsors will follow the fans,” said Jim Andrews, senior vice-president at Chicago-based sports marketing firm IEG. “Until the consumers say we’re not going to support the sport because of what’s going on, the sponsors will follow the fans.” 

“FIFA has become a byword for shady dealings,” said Chris Renner, chief executive officer of Helios Partners, which markets sporting events around the world. “But the World Cup will always be bulletproof, there’s no question about it. It’s just too great a competition to even have the guys that run it screw it up. All you’ve got to basically do is get 11 players on each side and roll a ball out and the thing’s going to happen – and 60,000 people will show up.”

Mind you – some are urging people specifically to support the Women’s World Cup, because they get such a raw deal in the sport – and not just because of the astroturf some are being forced to play on in Canada. Read this article about sexism in ‘the beautiful game’, and and then maybe you can might feel ok about watching New Zealand v China tomorrow (11.30am our time) in the Women’s World Cup.