Hoardings for commercial partners surround a practice session of the Dutch national team at the Qatar University training complex in Doha, Qatar, on Nov. 16. Photographer: Koen Van WeelANP/Getty Images
Locked
Qatar’s tarnished World Cup is too big for brands to boycott
The ultimate determinant of how enthusiastically brands get behind the tournament may be simply which teams progress. If their home nation advances, there’s scope for opportunistic ad campaigns.
By Simone Foxman and Alex Webb
(Bloomberg) — There's already never been a World Cup quite like Qatar 2022 before a ball has even been kicked.
Human rights groups are in uproar over everything from the treatment of LGBTQ people in a country where homosexuality is illegal to the deaths of construction workers building the stadiums. Organizer FIFA is recovering from corruption scandals that cast aspersions on how Qatar was awarded the competition to begin with. Erstwhile FIFA chief Sepp Blatter said he regretted that the Gulf country was picked as host.
___STEADY_PAYWALL___