How you can help drive reform in FIFA in five easy steps - by contacting their eight major sponsors. This explains why, who and how
“If McDonalds cattle lived in these conditions, we wouldn’t buy their burgers,” British MP, Damian Collins, told a media conference in London overnight to launch a collaborative campaign between #NewFIFANow, Playfair Qatar, the International Trade Union Confederation and the first Official Non-Sponsor of FIFA, SKINS.
Quite.
The aim of the latest campaign is for fans like you and me – who so often whinge about FIFA, not to mention the decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar – to actually do something beyond whingeing.
Write an email. Send a tweet. Actually, eight emails and eight tweets to be precise – to FIFA’s major partners and sponsors of the World Cup tournament and call them out on their hypocrisy.
On the one hand, the likes of adidas, Coca-Cola, Hyundai, VISA and Gazprom espouse a code of business conduct that requires the highest standards of transparency and accountability in its business dealings. On the other hand, they give large sums of money to FIFA.
On the one hand, brands such as Budweiser, Kia and McDonald’s have grand statements in their corporate values about the importance of workplace standards and a commitment to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. On the other hand, they give large sums of money to FIFA which (a) made a decision to place the 2022 World Cup in a country that has a state-sponsored system of kafala and (b) compounds that decision (and the entire flawed bidding process) with an unwillingness and inability to do anything about it.
Considering the FIFA President Sepp Blatter says FIFA is more important than any government or religion, FIFA’s unwillingness and inability to do anything suggest, at best, an ineffectual leadership; or, at worst, arrogance, indifference or something altogether more ugly to contemplate.
But who buys sponsor products?
Yep, we do. And brand power counts.
What #NewFIFANow, Playfair Qatar, the ITUC and SKINS are advocating is to let the sponsors know that you want them to do something about their hypocritical stance.
Either they have values that they stand for and which mean something – or they don’t. Either they put pressure on FIFA to reform – or they stand condemned.
The sponsors can do much to reform FIFA. And we can do much to get the sponsors moving.
The globally recognised logos of the eight sponsors being targeted are here.
5-step guide
Here’s a five-step guide to do something positive about FIFA reform today, and preferably before Maya 29th when the FIFA Presidential elections are held. It will take about ten minutes of your time.
If you’re unconvinced about the plight of migrant workers in Qatar, check out the first two videos here (or see the #6 feature video on our home page).
To find out twitter and email contacts for each of the eight companies go here.
To find suggested tweets and emails go here (English).
If you want an easier way of doing (3), visit Playfair Qatar as they have automated the process in English.
If you want to send this to friends or colleagues in other languages, the #NewFIFANow website has provided tweets and an email in six other languages – French, German, Japanese, Indonesian, Portuguese and Spanish. Follow the links or the drop down menu from here.
And bonus step … don’t forget to write/tweet your football association also about who you would like to see as FIFA President. Just go to the ‘Find Your FA’ page on the #NewFIFANow website to get your football association’s or regional confederation’s details and then follow the language links to suggested tweets and email.
It’s our game. Happy campaigning!