Why World Cup Sponsors Budweiser, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola stand to lose more than most in Qatar

The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 is almost upon us, but for World Cup sponsors, the tournament has proved to be a morality minefield riddled with controversy and risk. For some, however, the risk of harming their brand is more significant than others; here’s why.

As a sponsor, imagine for a moment the individual you have chosen to partner your brand with begins regularly tweeting homophobic statements. What do you suppose your response might be? I would suggest it might go something like this: ‘Our company does not tolerate homophobia and any other sort of hate speech. The recent comments and actions made by the individual we sponsored have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.’