Sponsors React Meekly to Blatter's Resignation

In the hours after Sepp Blatter announced Tuesday that he would resign as president of FIFA, World Cup sponsors issued statements that read as if one very careful public relations executive had written several versions of the same message that was now so safe to deliver with Blatter on the way out. Of five sponsor statements, only two even cited Blatter, who, after all, was the star of the day. (Read: Blatter's full statement on resignation)

All five statements were a variation on the theme of transparency and high ethical standards, which you can never go wrong advocating in the middle of a moral mess. (Full timeline of FIFA's corruption scandal)

None expressed any anger over spending millions of dollars in association with a corruption-plagued organization. None offered a detailed prescription for how to right FIFA.

Instead, we got the hope that Blatter's resignation will "accelerate FIFA's efforts to resolve internal issues" (Budweiser) and that "FIFA will continue to act with urgency to take concrete actions to fully address all of the issues that have been raised" (Coca-Cola). We heard the wish that "today's news marks a step in the right direction" (Adidas) and that "FIFA will take swift and immediate steps toward addressing the issues within its organization to quickly rebuild a culture with strong ethical practices" (Visa).

Not exactly ripsnorting criticism. In no instance were top executives of the sponsors available to elaborate on their companies' sentiments or whether their statements might have even been public cover as they privately lobbied Blatter to step down.

Coca-Cola quickly looked past Blatter, saying, "We respect Blatter's decision." Respect the decision, sure, but what about the current FIFA scandal? Isn't that worth a comment?

Budweiser and McDonald's took the beautiful game approach, with the latter saying, "Football has the unique ability to bring the world together while positively impacting communities and economies." It sure does. But how about delving deeper, even briefly, beyond citing "allegations of corruption and questionable ethics"? But real finger-pointing isn't easy in the corporate world.

Through their messages, the sponsors told the soccer world two things: One, we're staying aboard because we want to be there when FIFA reforms (however long that takes).

And second, please, folks, ignore the ugly FIFA revelations - they are irrelevant to the futbol you much prefer anyway to Sepp Blatter's news conferences.

None of these sponsors followed the example of David D'Alessandro. As a top executive of John Hancock Life Insurance Co., he wielded its worldwide Olympic sponsorship like a hammer against the calcified bureaucracy and corruption of the  International Olympic Committee.

After the scandal over the bidding for the 2002 Salt Lake Winter games erupted, he became the IOC's scourge (and no pal of the USOC, either). He demanded that Juan Antonio Samaranch, the IOC president, resign. He took the Olympic logo off John Hancock's billboards and advertising. He froze the insurer's purchase of $20 million in television time on NBC for the 2000 Summer Olympics (which prompted Dick Ebersol, the head of NBC Sports, to say that he was "sick of watching this two-bit bully get on his soapbox").

Rather than simply end Hancock's Olympic sponsorship, he chose to try to reform the Olympics and believes he did, especially in the effort to turn the IOC from opaque to transparent.

On Tuesday, after Blatter's announcement, D'Alessandro reflected by telephone about a peculiar imbalance of sports power: Sponsors and networks pay huge sums to outfits like FIFA and the IOC, yet fear speaking out boldly when those organizations deserve excoriation.

"Let me understand this," he said. "I'm paying you to borrow your brand and ride on your brand. And if your brand is sullied or tarnished, I'm paying to beat myself up? That makes no sense to me. But you have to remember that most corporate bigwigs are cowards."

At Hancock, he said, he ran the marketing division before rising eventually to chief executive. He granted himself the freedom to speak out. But he conceded that other companies could not - and cannot - respond with bracing candor because sports sponsorship is usually run by middle-management executives without much power.

"They spend a fair amount of time justifying the enormous sums they're spending, so they're on the defensive most of the time," he said. "They don't have the gravitas inside. Middle-level sponsorship people can't get higher-ups to speak out. And only a CEO can make that call because it means stepping out. And by training, most of them are not into public controversy."

Not only that, the names of the sponsors' CEOs were not attached to their statements on Tuesday, as if the corporations were separate entities able to make safe, inoffensive remarks.

But maybe some comment is better than none. No statements about Blatter came from the hierarchy at Fox Sports, which has the rights to the next three World Cups and starts coverage of the Women's World Cup on Saturday.

But to be fair, Fox released a series of comments about Blatter's resignation from its Women's World Cup commentators. One of them, Alexei Lalas, said: "You saw euphoria, almost, over the past hour when this news came out. That's wonderful. That's a great step." Can you imagine the grumbling at FIFA's bunker in Zurich if Eric Shanks, the president of Fox Sports, said that?

© 2015 New York Times News Service