國際足聯再獲中國企業贊助
Fifa has secured crucial financial backing from Chinese smartphone maker Vivo in a 400m sponsorship deal, as western groups continue to shun the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
According to people briefed on the deal, Vivo will pay about 60m-70m a year to sponsor tournaments run by international football’s governing body, up until the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
聽取了相關簡報的人士稱，Vivo每年將支付6000萬到7000萬歐元以贊助國際足球管理機構舉辦的賽事，直至2022年卡塔爾世界盃。It becomes the third big Chinese company to sponsor the World Cup in the past year, after real estate and leisure conglomerate Wanda and consumer electronics brand Hisense.
Vivo成爲繼房地產和休閒集團萬達(Wanda)以及消費電子品牌海信(Hisense)之後，第三家在過去一年裏簽約贊助世界盃的中國企業。
Endorsements from China have provided welcome support for Fifa, which has struggled to secure commercial partners before next year’s World Cup in Russia. It lost several big sponsors, including Sony and Emirates, when their contracts expired at the end of the previous tournament in 2014.
來自中國的贊助爲國際足聯提供了亟需的支持，該組織正艱難地在明年俄羅斯世界盃之前爭取商業合作伙伴。國際足聯失去了索尼(Sony)和阿聯酋航空(Emirates)等幾大贊助商，它們的合約在2014年上一場賽事結束時到期。Fifa’s secretary-general, Fatma Samoura, told the Financial Times: “It’s not always an easy business [to seek sponsorship] anywhere, but to have China as a partner of Fifa for the third time in less than a year demonstrates that football is a global sport, and that China will be an important client when it comes to football.”
國際足聯祕書長法蒂瑪?薩穆拉(Fatma Samoura)向英國《金融時報》表示：“（尋求贊助）並不總是一件容易的事，在任何地方都是如此，但在不到一年時間裏，中國第三次成爲國際足聯的合作伙伴，表明了足球是一項全球運動，中國將在足球方面成爲一個重要的客戶。”Vivo becomes Fifa’s 12th sponsor for the 2018 World Cup. According to its annual reports, revenues from commercial and marketing deals related to the 2018 World Cup were $246m in 2015, down from $404m in 2013. The lack of sponsors, alongside legal costs related to corruption probes, contributed to Fifa making a $369m loss in 2016.
Vivo成爲國際足聯2018年世界盃的第12家贊助商。國際足聯年報顯示，與2018年世界盃相關的商業和營銷交易帶來的收入已從2013年的4.04億美元下滑至2015年的2.46億美元。贊助商缺乏，加上與腐敗調查相關的法律費用，使得國際足聯在2016年虧損3.69億美元。Sports industry analysts have said western groups are avoiding the potential reputational damage of being associated with scandal-hit governing body .
體育行業分析師表示，西方企業正在避免與這家受醜聞打擊的管理機構扯在一起，以免遭受聲譽損害。“To a certain extent, China can step back from Fifa and say what happened over the last 20 or 30 years is nothing to do with us, we are associated with the new Fifa,” said Simon Chadwick, a professor of sports enterprise at Salford Business School, who has studied Chinese football. “In those terms, the reputational damage is far less for China.”
“在某種程度上，中國可以撇清其與國際足聯的關係，表示過去20年或30年所發生之事與我們無關，我們與之合作的是新的國際足聯，”英國索爾福德商學院(Salford Business School)體育事業教授、曾經研究中國足球的西蒙?查德威克(Simon Chadwick)表示，“利用那些說辭，中國的聲譽損害會小得多。”
