Adidas exposed
SPORTS giants adidas, who have global kit deals with the England cricket team, Manchester United and Chelsea, were exposed again yesterday over their failure to distance themselves from Sepp Blatter’s corrupt FIFA regime.
Four of FIFA’s sponsors — in the top tier of backers with adidas — appeared before the DCMS select committee yesterday united in demanding wholesale reforms in Zurich and all of them calling for an independent advisory group to be set up and much more transparency about where their money went.
The representatives from Visa, Budweiser, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s claimed they had all invited adidas to support their joint condemnation of FIFA, including calling for Blatter to step down — but to no avail. Adidas have a 30-year partnership with FIFA.
However, the four’s decision to speak out did not impress the select committee, who felt they had been far too passive over FIFA for too long — especially over construction workers’ conditions in Qatar. Visa were the only member of the quartet to declare they would abandon their sponsorship if the promised FIFA reforms fail to meet their approval.
FC UNITED of Manchester, the non-League club who rejected a change of kick-off time in the FA Cup fourth qualifying round because they did not want the BBC’s coverage plans to upset the routine of their players and spectators, also wanted to turn down BT Sport’s request to televise their first-round clash with Chesterfield on a Monday night. But the supporter-friendly club were told they had no choice but to comply with TV wishes. JOHN INVERDALE’s career as a frontline TV sports presenter looked doomed after then Culture Secretary Maria Miller wrote to the BBC to complain about his ‘not a looker’ comments on BBC Radio 5 Live about tennis player Marion Bartoli.
Yet Inverdale (right), who was dropped from hosting the Wimbledon highlights, has worked his way back to the top of his profession. This is underlined by his excellent anchoring of ITV’s Rugby World Cup coverage, especially for the way he conducted the post-match analysis.
Meanwhile, Clare Balding, whose awful Wimbledon highlights programme this year did much to boost Inverdale’s cause, has committed to fronting more racing for C4 next year.
This comes as C4 face a potential challenge from ITV in the current tender process for the marquee races from 2017. Balding has added the Grand National, Derby and British Champions day to her Royal Ascot and Cheltenham cherrypicking in 2015.
FA CHAIRMAN Greg Dyke deserves credit for backing the British press’s pivotal role in exposing FIFA corruption when Scottish National Party MP John Nicolson, a former
Panorama reporter and BBC news presenter, asked him at the select committee why there hadn’t been better press coverage of the FIFA meltdown. Perhaps not in Scotland, where only Celtic and Rangers are deemed newsworthy. And it was surprising, given the plethora of scandals besetting FIFA, that MPs chose to quiz Dyke about his £16,000 Parmigiani watch gifted to delegates at the 2014 FIFA Congress which Dyke had long since returned to Zurich.
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