Richest man gives commercial backing to scandal-hit football body
Fifa has signed a sponsorship deal covering the next four World Cups with a company controlled by China’s richest man but that also has links to Sepp Blatter, the disgraced former president of world football’s governing body.
Wanda Group joins Adidas, Coca-Cola, Gazprom, Hyundai and Visa as a Fifa “partner” in the first sponsorship deal it has signed since agreeing a deal with Russia’s largest oil and gas company in 2013.
Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed but Fifa’s new president, Gianni Infantino, said the deal with Wanda would help the organisation “massively”. The announcement was made after Mr Infantino chaired his first meeting of Fifa’s executive committee and a day after the scandal-hit organisation revealed its first loss since 2002.
Wang Jianlin, Wanda Group’s chairman, described football as “one of the most attractive sports globally” and said he “had the highest trust in Fifa and its newly established organisational structure under the lead of president Gianni Infantino.”
Mr Wang is China’s richest man, with a fortune estimated at $28.7bn. He made his wealth in real estate in China but has since set his ambitions on building a global leisure and entertainment empire, acquiring a 20 per cent stake in Atlético Madrid, the Spanish football team. He also splashed out $3.5bn to buy Legendary Entertainment, the Hollywood film studio that made Jurassic World, Godzilla and The Hangover, and spent $2.6bn on AMC, a US cinema chain.
China is a football-crazy nation, though one that is sunk in almost permanent disappointment over the failures of its national team. President Xi Jinping counts himself as one of China’s biggest fans and has said he wants the country not only to host a World Cup one day but also, eventually, to win one.
“China and corporate China wants to become a major football power, and I think that this [the Fifa deal] is further evidence of that,” said Tim Crow, chief executive of Synergy, a sports marketing consultancy.
“I would hazard a guess that more and more Fifa partners will come from the east rather than the west because there is no doubt the Fifa brand has more work to do, even if it can come back.”
Mr Infantino said Fifa was “of course” aware of how the deal might look to outsiders, and had checked carefully it was in line with the “highest standards” of compliance. “Especially in these situations, it is even more important to do the right thing.”
Last year, Dalian Wanda won an auction for Infront Media, the Swiss company led by Philippe Blatter, the nephew of disgraced former Fifa president Mr Blatter, which distributes broadcasting rights for some of the world’s biggest sporting events.
Fifa on Thursday blamed “unforeseen costs” as well as increased spending on football development for a loss of $122m for 2015. Legal costs almost doubled to $61.5m, from $31.3m in 2014.
Fifa was plunged into crisis last May when US and Swiss legal authorities instigated a series of arrests of top officials who were meeting in Zürich.