Lessons from FIFA on doing the right thing.

By Amber Hudson and Luke Sklar


Racketeering, wire fraud, money laundering, flagrant abuse of power…all in the name of exclusive television contracts and awarding the odd tournament or two to some curious locales?  Sounds like the Mafia rather than a sport favoured by children.

So why aren’t fans speaking out?  Why are we so quick to gloss over the decades of corruption?  Well, fans clearly know it’s corrupt.  But as long as they can still watch the beautiful game these headlines will remain noise.

We say boo, hiss to turning a blind eye. We say yay to handing Sepp Blatter the red card.  But we need more. We want people to vote with their wallets, all in the name of doing the right thing.  In a world where Corruption Inc.  has the same clout as China and the US it’s high time consumers take a stand and kick ‘em where it hurts most, the bottom line.

Here’s the thing:  we love the Canadian women’s soccer team (who just yesterday finished 1st in their group, advancing in the FIFA Women’s World Cup), but we detest FIFA.  And yes, we reserve the right to feel conflicted.  But conflict isn’t a good place for a brand to be.  Can your brand stand tall and hand on heart say it’s doing the right thing?  Or will the day come when your consumer will rise up and demand your red card too?