Dive Brief:
- Coca-Cola has issued a harsh statement criticizing FIFA, the governing body of world soccer, for what is allegedly a botched investigation into corruption surrounding the process of awarding World Cup tournaments to host nations.
- Coke called the handling of the investigation "disappointing," and called for transparency. The statement marks the first criticism in the growing scandal by a so-called tier one sponsor of the World Cup.
- The statement comes 10 days after FIFA released a summary of an investigation into its awarding of the games to Qatar and Russia that absolved the group of wrongdoing. The lead investigator issued a statement condemning that summary and saying FIFA had misrepresented his findings.
Dive Insight:
It's pretty easy to be cynical about this, but while the suspicions may loom, it does appear that the level of tolerance that people have for such corruption is declining. Coke's statement comes just hours after the chief of the German football league called for a European-wide boycott of the games.