By RYAN TOLMICH
Having already lost the support of Sony and Emirates, FIFA’s sponsors seem to be dwindling by the day, as three more major companies have ended their relationship with soccer’s governing body.
Castrol, Continental and Johnson & Johnson all severed their ties with FIFA upon the conclusion of their contracts at the start of the new year. The trio were identified as second-tier World Cup sponsors, with Continental and Castrol’s relationship dating back to the 2006 and 2010 World Cups, respectively.
Johnson and Johnson said that the decision was made “for business reasons after a comprehensive review,” while Johnson & Johnson added that FIFA “was a great platform for us and now we’re using football on a regionalized level.”
Here are some more news and notes to kickoff your Friday morning:
MEXICO SET TO PLAY TWO FRIENDLIES IN THE U.S.
Mexico is set to take on the U.S. Men’s National Team in April, but El Tri has taken the opportunity to schedule two U.S.-based matchups in the buildup.
The Mexican Football Federation announced Thursday that Mexico will take on Ecuador on March 28 in Los Angeles before facing Paraguay March 31 at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium.
Set on a FIFA date, El Tri are set to bring the pool’s best players in preparation for this summer’s Gold Cup.
UAE SHOCK JAPAN; IRAQ TOPS IRAN IN ASIA CUP
The United Arab Emirates and Iraq are both onto the Asia Cup semifinals, and both sides got there in stunning fashion.
UAE upset heavy favorites Japan in penalty kicks, 5-4, after regular time finished 1-1 on Friday. After Japan’s Shinji Kagawa missed the opener from the spot, UAEÂ defender Ismail Ahmed converted his team’s fifth penalty, sending his nation into a semifinal matchup with hosts Australia.
Iraq also advanced via a shootout by beating Iran, 7-6, in penalty kicks of their own. The match finished 1-1 in normal time before exploding in extra time to result in a 3-3 scoreline heading into penalties. From there, defender Salam Shakir converted Iraq’s final penalty after a miss from Iran’s Vahid Amiry, sending Iraq into a semifinal contest against South Korea.
HONDURAS U-20s COME FROM BEHIND TO TOP CANADA; MEXICO QUALIFIES
Orlando City forward Bryan Rochez sure looked like a designated player in leading his nation to a major tournament victory.
Rochez and the Honduras U-20s came from behind to top fellow Orlando City star Cyle Larin and Canada, 3-2. Rochez was responsible for a pair of goals, one in each half, as Honduras overcame a 2-1 halftime deficit with an 83rd minute winner from the Orlando City forward.
With the victory, Honduras will take on Guatemala with a spot on the line in the U-20 World Cup, while Canada had been previously eliminated from the competition.
Meanwhile, Mexico locked up their spot in the World Cup with a 1-1 draw against Haiti, a result good enough to take El Tri to the top of Group B
QUICK KICKS
Real Madrid have reportedly signed Lucas Silva from Cruzeiro for a fee of $15 million. (REPORT)
Ajax manager Frank de Boer has left the door open to accepting the coaching role at Newcastle in the summer. (REPORT)
Liverpool are hoping to sign defender Glen Johnson to a new deal. (REPORT)
Martin Odegaard’s father, Hans Erik, has joined Real Madrid as a youth coach. (REPORT)
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What do you make of FIFA’s sponsorship news? Excited to see Mexico play in the U.S. again? What do you expect from the rest of the Asia Cup? What teams have impressed you in the CONCACAF U-20 Championship?
Share your thoughts below.
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FIFA Out. Red Bull Out.
They’ll just be replaced by Gazprom, Qatar Airways, Kaspersky Labs, Al Jazeera
FIFA will replace those sponsors with Herbalife and Advocare. It’s like a match made in heaven.
Would not be surprised if Platini, Gulati, et al are behind the scenes getting these sponsors to leave in a backdoor move to try and force Sepp out. Less risk that way then sticking your neck out to run against him and losing because Sepp has his votes bought and paid for.
“The pile of money needs to be this high.”
-Seppy Blatts.
That is very good.
I was imagining a beeping truck backing up with pallets of cash.
How does UAE even field a team? The citizenship laws are very strict. There is a large number of native-born residents that are considered foreign. Is it safe to assume some players given Emirati status to just play or are the rules bent to include native-born non-citizens?
Real Sports on HBO did a whole segment on it last year. They pay athletes to compete for UAE and Qatar does it as well. You are given citizenship and once you are done the citizenship is gone after a certain amount of time. They do it in a lot of sports: weight-lifting, track and field, soccer etc.
One example is their star player Omar Abdulrahman. He was born in Saudi Arabia of Yemeni parents (thus without Saudi nationality). The Saudis offered him nationality but not to his family. So he declined and accepted the move to Dubai, where the whole family was offered citizenship in exchange for him playing for their national teams. This happened when he was a child, so no problem with FIFA elegibility rules.
U.S. U-20s v. El Salvador on Saturday for a spot in the U-20 World Cup. Let’s avoid a Nightmare in Nashville Redux. Focus, play hard, attack, win.
The UAE victory over Japan is a m a s s i v e upset, no?
UAE has a FIFA/Coca-Cola ranking of 80, while Japan is ranked at 54.
Yup. It’s a MASSIVE upset. This was Japan’s Cup to lose. The best way I can describe this as Japan and South Korea are like the USA and Mexico of CONCACAF. Imagine if Honduras knocks out Mexico in the QUARTER FINALS in the Gold Cup, and Asian Cup is a tournament every 4 years, which is even more shocking
I am willing to bet Australia wins this tournament now that Japan is gone. They’re on home soil and they’ve been playing some amazing football. This is the first time Australia’s been in AFC (they’ve always been in OFC until now) and for them to take a trophy right away is glorious. I personally think only Iran and Korea have some chance to stop them.
This is Australia’s 3rd AFC and they were runners up last time…
My bad. I was under the impression that they recently joined AFC from OFC, only since 2005.
For too long CONCACAF has been the whipping boy of the other confederations.
I have often said that while Africa may have a deeper pool of top tier teams (1-5), Africa has no team that has the longevity of success like Mexico and the US in regard to WC results. Only Ghana comes close, and the US finally dispatched them in Brazil.
Japan and South Korea from Asia compare with US and Mexico in terms of WC results and regional championships. But, the remainder of the Asian Confederation is not of the quality of the minnows of CONCACAF. Recall that the last two times CONCACAF and Asia had a play-off for a WC spot, CONCACAF won.
I would like to see a mini-WC tournament of 12 teams, the top 4 from CONCACAF, Asia and Africa, just to see what would happen. Four groups of 3 teams; winners advance to a semi-final and then a final. I would watch that. Anyone else? Lets get SUM Marketing on it to make it happen.
It would be like the Europa League of international soccer. Or like the FCS (Division I-AA) football tournament.
As a Kansas City native, I’d be interested to see what the turnout for the Paraguay/Mexico match is. It’s not exactly a diverse area, but since I’ve moved away it appears to have become quite the hotbed for fanfare with SKC.
They will sell out the stadium. Kansas City’s surroundings havea lot of mexican people… one just don’t see them around 😉
Honestly, I never knew that. Interesting.
Odegaard’s dad being hired as a coach…. least shocking thing you’ll hear today.
Reminds me of college football recruiting of blue chip athletes and related hires. It’s not that uncommon.
At least in this instance it’s a professional club instead of a university hiring someone and then still attempting to maintain the charade of amateurism.
How right you are.
Thank you! I can’t stand these people who argue that college football is amateur athletics while denying that is incredibly corrupt professionalism.
But Odegaard’s dad is an ex-player who was assistant coach on a team that won promotion. If he is responsible for Odegaard’s training since he was a child, he might actually be a good coach.
We can only hope the sponsors notified FIFA they are not renewing their contracts due to FIFA corruption.
Maybe if they keep loosing MONEY they’ll actually crack down on the corruption… maybe.
It’s both the corruption scandal and the locations of the two upcoming World Cups. Nobody wants to touch that steaming pile.
I believe, however unfortunate, that FIFA has already replaced one of the sponsors – perhaps GAZPROM? See a post below about a caption for this picture. While US corps might (I repeat might) be looking to get away from FIFA, as long as other sponsors are willing to wade into the muck, FIFA will take the cash.
I saw this back in August of last year, GAZPROM is all over for the Womens 2015 WC… corrupt russiaa and fifa make a great union.