Photo: The dominating presence of Chinese brands at the World Cup comes despite the national team failing to qualify. Photograph: AFP\/Getty<\/p>\n
Football fans heading to the\u00a0World Cup<\/a>\u00a0this summer are going to get an education in Chinese TVs, mobile phones, electric scooters and Mongolian dairy products.<\/p>\n As western companies, including Sony, Johnson & Johnson and BP\u2019s Castrol, have pulled out of sponsoring the tournament after the\u00a0Fifa bribery and corruption scandal<\/a>, Chinese firms have secured an unprecedented presence at Russia 2018.<\/p>\n When Russia kicks off against Saudi Arabia in the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow on 14 June, fans will be treated to a\u00a0seven-minute advert for Mengniu Group\u2019s inner Mongolian milk and drinkable yoghurt<\/a>.<\/p>\n The commercial will be aired during each of the 64 games in the tournament. Spectators fancying an ice-cream will have to pick from unfamiliar names such as Mood for Green, Ice+ or Suibian SuiXinGuo, after Mengniu secured exclusive rights to sell sweet treats including yoghurt drinks in the stadiums.<\/p>\n Other unfamiliar names to get to grips with during the month-long tournament include: Vivo, a mobile phone firm producing China\u2019s version of the iPhone at a fraction of the price; the TV and fridge maker Hisense; the electric scooter company Yadea; and Dalian Wanda, a conglomerate controlled by the multibillionaire Wang Jianlin.<\/p>\n The dominating presence of Chinese brands comes despite the country\u2019s national team failing to qualify for\u00a0Russia<\/a>\u00a02014 or the previous World Cup in Brazil.<\/p>\n Simon Chadwick, professor of sports enterprise at Salford University, said: \u201cAs Fifa is now seen as a toxic brand that many western companies do not want to be associated with,\u00a0China<\/a>\u00a0is seizing the opportunity.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Chinese view of ethics and governance is different to western standards, and it is very easy for Chinese companies to say \u2018Fifa has moved on\u2019. And, that they were not backing the Sepp Blatter-era regime and are supporting a clean Fifa under Gianni Infantino [who replaced Blatter in 2016].\u201d<\/p>\n Chadwick said the lack of demand from western companies to sponsor the World Cup in Russia, and Qatar in 2022, has left Fifa \u201cdesperate for cash, and Chinese companies spotted the opportunity for a relatively cost-effective way to get their brands in front of billions of global eyeballs\u201d.<\/p>\n Wang, the fifth-richest person in\u00a0China<\/a>\u00a0with a $23.4bn (\u00a317.6bn) fortune, according to Bloomberg\u2019s billionaires index, said: \u201cTwo or three years ago, Chinese and Asian companies probably wouldn\u2019t even have had a chance to sponsor Fifa even if we wanted to. But because some western companies dropped out, we got the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n Wanda, which owns the British luxury yacht builder Sunseeker, the Hollywood studio that made Godzilla and The Hangover as well as a stake in Atl\u00e9tico Madrid, has signed up as a Fifa partner \u2013 the highest level of sponsorship \u2013 alongside Coca-Cola, Visa, Adidas and Russia\u2019s Gazprom for the next four World Cups.<\/p>\n \u201cIf more Chinese brother companies become Fifa sponsors like Wanda, we will join forces to advance the interests of China soccer,\u201d Wang said.<\/p>\n Chadwick said the Chinese companies\u2019 Fifa sponsorship deals were encouraged by President Xi Jinping to help fuel his dream of turning China into a \u201cworld football superpower\u201d by 2050.<\/p>\n \u201cChina wants to host the the World Cup, China wants to win the World Cup, and I speculate they also want a Chinese president of Fifa,\u201d Chadwick said. \u201cRescuing Fifa financially with these sponsorship deals will help the chances of achieving those dreams immeasurably.\u201d<\/p>\n After TV rights sales, sponsorship is Fifa\u2019s biggest income stream and was worth $1.6bn for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. The loss of sponsors and the struggle to sign deals after the bribery scandal dragged Fifa to a record $369m loss in 2016.<\/p>\n John Tibbs, founder and chair of JTA, a sports reputation management company, said it was sensible of Chinese firms to use football for promotion. \u201cAs the traditional western brands get cold feet and face consumers\u2019 pressure, it is inevitable that Fifa turns to new markets,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cFor Chinese brands seeking new markets it is relatively very easy and prestigious to partner with Fifa. It is widely believed that China will bid for the 2030 World Cup, obviously if there are a large number of Chinese sponsors helping to prop up Fifa that is a very good starting point.\u201d<\/p>\n Sam Burne James, news editor of PR Week, said Fifa was \u201ccertainly seen as toxic\u201d by many British brands, and\u00a0Boris Johnson\u2019s comparison of the World Cup under Vladimir Putin to the 1936 Olympic Games under Hitler<\/a>\u00a0had not helped.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at few tournaments back, most of the brands would be recognisable to western audiences, now several of them are unheard of \u2013 and that shift will continue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cChinese companies get two things from sponsoring the World Cup. The first is access to western audiences that they will sooner or later be trying to win over, as their companies expand. The other is a cosmopolitan veneer to their brands, which they hope will resonate with their sizeable domestic markets.\u201d<\/p>\n Vivo, founded nine years ago, paid \u20ac400m (\u00a3350m) for a six-year deal that included Russia 2018, Qatar 2022 and the Confederations Cup.<\/p>\n