July 10 – With the World Cup in Russia less than a year away, one of FIFA’s top front-line sponsors, McDonald’s, have been in discussions about a possible withdrawal due to ethical concerns.
McDonald’s have sponsored the World Cup since 1994 but have been closely watching implementation of FIFA’s reform process.
In October 2015, McDonald’s called for former president Sepp Blatter to step down in the face of FIFA’s continuing corruption crisis and also made clear they expected progress to be made.
The company told the Mail on Sunday there was no change to its current policy but the newspaper quoted a source “close to internal discussions” as indicating there was “around a 40 per cent chance” that they could pull out ahead of Russia.
In a statement, McDonald’s insisted that they “will continue to hold FIFA accountable for meaningful reform.”
“There is no change to our sponsorship plans for the FIFA World Cup in Russia in 2018. Like other sponsors a couple of years ago, we strongly advocated for FIFA reform including calling for the resignation of former President Sepp Blatter. As a sponsor, we will continue to hold FIFA accountable.”
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