Sponsorship of FIFA: A new front in Gulf political rivalry

Lurking in the background of the world football body, FIFA’s talks with Qatar Airways to replace its Dubai rival Emirates as a sponsor is escalating hostility between Qatar and the United Arab Emirates as a result of their divergent attitudes toward political Islam.

Officially, Emirates’ decision to end its $200 million relationship with FIFA is a result of its announcement three years ago that the airline was restructuring its sponsorships, which also include clubs Arsenal, Real Madrid, Paris Saint Germaine (PSG) and Hamburger SV.

The announcement came a year after Emirates emerged as the most vocal of the football body’s sponsors expressing concern about FIFA’s mushrooming corruption scandals involving disgraced FIFA executive committee member and then Asian Football Confederation (AFC) President Mohammed Bin Hammam, a Qatari national, as well as question marks about the integrity of the successful Russian and Qatari bids to host the respective 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Emirates said at the time that it was “disappointed.” Emirates was, however, uncharacteristically silent when over the past year various sponsors expressed concern about the negative publicity FIFA was generating as a result of mass protests in Brazil in the run-up to this year’s World Cup and the body’s unresolved transparency and accountability issues. In a statement, the airline said it was parting ways with FIFA because the body’s proposed contract which would extend the sponsorship arrangement had not met expectations.

FIFA’s tarnished image is without doubt a major reason why Emirates, alongside Sony, is seeking to disassociate themselves from the football body. However, it is hard to disassociate state-owned Emirates’ decision from the...