World Cup Sponsor Coke Adds To FIFA's Woes By Publicly Criticizing Its Disastrous Corruption Investigation (KO) | ||
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Coca-Cola has become the first tier-one sponsor of the World Cup to publicly criticize FIFA for its handling of the investigation into corruption over the bidding process for the 2018 tournament in Russia and 2022 competition in Qatar, according to a report in The Sunday Times. FIFA's latest crisis came earlier this month when it published a summary of the report, clearing the winning Qatar and Russia bids of any corruption. Shortly after its publication, the summary was disowned by FIFA's own ethics chief Michael Garcia, who said the report had been "misrepresented" by football's governing body, as reported in The Daily Telegraph. Coke has said the handling of the botched investigation has been "disappointing." FIFA announced last week it was lodging a criminal complaint with the Swiss attorney general regarding "possible misconduct of individual persons in connection with the awarding of the hosting rights of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups." The Mail on Sunday reports that five officials with connections to FIFA are at the center of the investigation. But FIFA's ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert said there was not enough evidence to question the entire bidding process. Awarding the 2022 World Cup to Qatar has been particularly controversial. Qatar said earlier this month it will not be able to keep its promise to hold the 2022 World Cup in the summer — completely disrupting European football seasons and potentially clashing with the Winter Olympics — its original $200 billion construction proposal has already seen 12 stadium cut to eight, and the country's football body is continually fending off accusations of poor workers' conditions and a mounting death toll, which at the last report stood at around 900. A Coca-Cola spokesman told The Sunday Times: “Anything that detracts from the mission and ideals of the FIFA World Cup is a concern to us. “The current conflicting perspectives regarding the investigation are disappointing. Our expectation is that this will be resolved quickly in a transparent and efficient manner.” Coke has sponsored the tournament since 1974. Its current contract with FIFA lasts until 2022 and is estimated, by sponsorship experts BrandRapport, to be worth £75 million ($117 million) over a four year period (the World Cup takes place every four years.) Some 40% of FIFA's commercial revenue comes from sponsorship, advertising and ticket sales, while the rest comes from TV broadcasting. FIFA reported revenue of $4 billion (£2.4 billion) in the 2011-14 period. The figures highlight just how important the continued financial support of sponsors is to the organization. Adidas, another top tier sponsor of the tournament, which is signed up with FIFA until 2030 with a contract estimated to be worth £95 million over a four year period, has been less damning in its response to the corruption investigation. The sportswear manufacturer told The Sunday Times it was planning to discuss the report with FIFA directly. McDonald's, a tier two sponsor, has said it is "monitoring the situation." Meanwhile, earlier this month Emirates announced it was ending its sponsorship of the World Cup, after an eight year partnership with FIFA. The Dubai airline's contract was due to come to an end in 2014, but put out a statement saying the decision was made "following an evaluation of FIFA's contract proposal which did not meet Emirates' expectations." Most people took that to read that Emirates was uneasy about the corruption claims surrounding the bid process for the World Cup, particularly the 2022 tournament held in Dubai. However, the decision may also have been made because the brand is in a far more prominent place than it was back in 2006, and the awareness a World Cup can offer is no longer necessary. Sony's contract also comes to an end this year and the company is also rumored to be the next to pull out. Outside of brand partners, the English, German, Dutch, Belgian, Swedish and Danish football federations have also all criticized FIFA for not publishing the full 350-page corruption report. But despite the now-public outcry over FIFA's handling of the World Cup bidding process, most sponsorship experts don't think a widespread boycott is likely — despite the potential damage to sponsors' brands by being associated with football's governing body if it is found guilty of any wrongdoing, or if anything goes wrong at one of the tournaments. Nigel Currie, director at sports marketing and sponsorship agency Brandrapport told Business Insider: "Unless they all get together to put pressure on FIFA...there's a question of whether sponsors have influence. I think it's unlikely they will all come together. The World Cup is such a valuable property to these brands that they need to be part of it — and if they pull out, their main competitors will be all to glad to step in. "All major sponsorship contracts will have embarrassment or insurance clauses if something significant happens [like the unlikely event that the World Cup was held in a war zone] or if they can prove it has fundamentally negatively impacted on their business." It appears Coke's attack on FIFA may well be a none-too-subtle reminder that these clauses are firmly in place. SEE ALSO: Emirates Airlines Punched A Big Hole In Qatar's Troubled World Cup Plans Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Russia to lose some $40 bn a year due to sanctions: minister | ||
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Moscow (AFP) - Russia is set to lose around $40 billion (32 billion euros) per year due to Western sanctions over the Ukraine conflict, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Monday. "We are losing around $40 billion per year due to geopolitical sanctions and we are losing some $90 to $100 billion per year due to oil prices falling 30 percent," Siluanov said in a speech at an economic forum in Moscow, quoted by RIA Novosti news agency. Sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States on Russia's economy, which is largely dependent on exports of raw materials, block its access to international capital markets and also to technology. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday accused the West of attempting to achieve "regime change" in Russia through sanctions that aim to destroy the economy and rouse public protests. President Vladimir Putin suggested Sunday that Russia could experience "catastrophic consequences" from sanctions, the falling oil price and the plunging ruble, while arguing that these would have knock-on effects for other countries. "The modern world is interdependent. It's far from guaranteed that sanctions, the steep fall in oil prices and the loss of value of the national currency will lead to negative results or catastrophic consequences only for us," Putin warned in an interview with TASS news agency. Putin denied he has financial links to the Russian officials and businessmen from his inner circle who are targeted by Western sanctions blacklists. He said to impose sanctions on those individuals in an attempt to get to him was an approach based on a "false premise." Putin suggested that falling oil prices were due to "targeted steps by our partners on the world energy market." Energy minister Alexander Novak said Friday that Russia was considering cutting its oil production in a bid to revive prices, as the falling price of crude along with sanctions over Ukraine have led to the ruble plunging in value. A major producer of crude oil, Russia is not a member of the OPEC oil producers cartel, which is to discuss later in the week whether to cut output. Russia gets around half of its revenues from oil profits. Its budget for next year, passed by the lower house of parliament on Friday, is based on an oil price of $96 per barrel.
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US police shoot dead boy, 12, holding toy gun | ||
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Washington (AFP) - Police in the US city of Cleveland shot and killed a 12-year-old African American boy waving around what turned out to be a toy gun at a playground, officials and reports said Sunday. The shooting in Ohio comes amid high racial tensions in the United States, with a grand jury set to announce whether a white policeman will be indicted for the fatal shooting in August of an unarmed black teenager in the St Louis suburb of Ferguson in Missouri. Ohio was also the scene of another fatal shooting in August, when police responding to a 911 call shot and killed a black man, John Crawford, in a Walmart store while he was carrying a toy gun sold there. In this latest incident, officers called to the scene Saturday fired at the boy twice, hitting him at least once in the stomach, after reports that he was pointing a gun at people. The boy, identified by the county medical examiner's office as Tamir Rice, died early Sunday, local newspaper The Plain Dealer reported. One of the police officers was in his first year in the force, it said. Audio released of a 911 call made to police records the caller saying the gun was "probably fake." Both officers have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation, as is standard in such cases, Cleveland police said in a statement. "Upon arrival on scene, officers located the suspect and advised him to raise his hands," the statement said. "The suspect did not comply with the officers' orders and reached to his waistband for the gun. "Shots were fired and the suspect was struck in the torso." It added: "Further information reveals that the weapon which the 12-year-old suspect was in possession of is an 'airsoft' type replica gun resembling a semi-automatic pistol, with the orange safety indicator removed." Reports said surveillance footage from the playground was being used in the investigation. In response to Saturday's shooting and the one that killed Crawford in August, state lawmaker Alicia Reese announced Sunday she would introduce a bill to require all toy guns to be brightly colored or have prominent fluorescent stripes. "The shooting of John Crawford III devastated many people in our community and left us looking for answers," Reece said. "This bill is but one small step in addressing this tragedy and helping to prevent future deadly confrontations with someone who clearly presents little to no immediate threat or danger. "With Saturday’s deadly shooting of a 12-year-old in Cleveland, it is becoming crystal clear that we need this law in Ohio," she added. Brown's shooting in Ferguson over the summer led to weeks of violence in the St. Louis suburb of 21,000, which has an African-American majority and an overwhelmingly white police department and town government. The death prompted a nationwide discussion about race and led to a Department of Justice probe into the Ferguson police department. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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A Tweet From A Left-Wing Blogger About Cameron's 'Dead Son' Is Causing Uproar | ||
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A tweet sent by left-wing blogger and Guardian columnist Jack Monroe accusing Prime Minister David Cameron of using "misty-eyed rhetoric" about his son Ivan, who passed away in 2009, to justify "selling" the NHS has caused outrage on the social network. Here's the tweet: Since being tweeted on Sunday the message, sent as part of the viral #CameronMustGo meme that begun trending on Twitter last week, has received a slew of angry responses.
In his Conservative Party conference speech in September Cameron expressed his anger at those who seek to "frighten those who are relying on the NHS" by suggesting that he would put the health service at risk. Dr Sarah Wollaston, Conservative Member of Parliament for Totnes, also expressed her anger at the comments.
The Daily Mail reports that a number of other Conservative MPs have spoken out against the tweet including Andrew Rosindell, Tory MP for Romford, who is quoted as saying: "This is thoroughly unpleasant and distasteful. David and Samantha’s tragic loss of their son has never been used to justify any Government policy. These comments are deeply shocking and will cause enormous hurt. They should be withdrawn immediately." Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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European Stocks Are Up | ||
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European equities are up early Monday, following some unexpectedly positive hints from Germany's businesses about the state of Europe's biggest economy. Here's the scorecard: France's CAC 40 is up 0.90% after opening down. Germany's DAX is down 0.54% The UK's FTSE 100 is up 0.06%, the only loser. Italy's FTSE MIB is up 0.69% Spain's IBEX is up 1.61% Asian markets closed up: Japan's Nikkei rose 0.33% on Monday, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng swelled 1.95%. US futures are also climbing: the S&P is 9.5 points higher and the Dow is 83 points up from Friday's close. It's a quiet day for data today: Markit's US PMI is out at 2.45 p.m. GMT. Economists expect a small uptick in the services part of the business survey, which should rise to about 57.3, signalling solid growth. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Germany's Ifo business confidence index rises in November | ||
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Frankfurt (AFP) - Business confidence in Germany appears to be stabilising after long months of decline, with the Ifo business climate index rising in November for the first time since April, data showed on Monday. The closely watched barometer rose to 104.7 points in November from 103.2 points in October, the Ifo think-tank said in a statement. "The downturn in the German economy has ground to a halt for the moment at least," Ifo chief Hans-Werner Sinn said in a statement. Ifo calculates its headline index on the basis of companies' assessments of current business and the outlook for the next six months. "Assessments of the current business situation are slightly more favourable than last month," Sinn said. "Expectations with regard to the months ahead are also brighter." The sub-index measuring current business rose to 110.0 points from 108.4 points last month, while the outlook sub-index increased by 1.4 points to 99.7 points. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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