Alipay. BYD. AliExpress. Vivo. If you’ve been following the UEFA EURO 2024, these Chinese companies are hard to miss as they dominate the stadium banners…Some of these sponsorships raise serious concerns and call UEFA’s credibility and ethical standards into doubt.
The sponsors are linked to a wide range of contentious issues such as allegations of mass labour abuses of Uyghurs, pornographic content for minors to illegal subsidisation, political interference, and fundamental human rights violations.
We, the people, like to think football is about uniting to enjoy something special. We like the game, so we will watch it and put up with a lot to do so. World Cup Qatar was a prime example, people spoke of boycotting but didn’t.
These huge sporting events are about one thing, and one thing only: money.
It is because of this that our daily lives are packed full of ads. And because of this oversaturated advertising market, advertisers have to advertise more and grander to stand out.
The result is that advertising space goes to the highest bidder and China just blatantly bids more. Hisense made no secret of their reason to advertise: they want to be number 1 globally.
The DFB and the UEFA would’ve done good to select advertisers based on merit. They wanted it to be a ‘green’ tournament, but trains didn’t go so the teams had to take airplanes, the buses were diesel powered and the biggest sponsors are giant pollutors or exploiters. BYD is nice window dressing with their electric cars, just as VAG usually sponsors these things with EV focus.
If advertising works so well, why can we not replace all these for-provit ad campaigns with campaigns to save our planet, be kinder to each other, reinforce our norms and values?