Mastercard And Fifa Go To Court
MasterCard’s court case against world football governing body FIFA begins today as the credit card brand looks for compensation over the loss of its World Cup sponsorship deal to rival Visa.
MasterCard believes that it was unfairly treated by FIFA after its existing sponsorship contract expired at the end of this summer’s World Cup.
The credit card giant claims that its contractual agreement with FIFA stated that MasterCard should be given first option on a renewal deal – an opportunity that MasterCard says was never extended to it.
FIFA unveiled Visa as its new exclusive financial services partner in April this year prior to the World Cup in a £150m eight-year deal incorporating the next two tournaments in 2010 and 2014.
The governing body is defending its role in the negotiations by claiming that a restructuring of its sponsorship packages – which saw the number of top-tier partners reduced from 15 to six – meant that the renewal options of the sponsorship contracts were no longer binding as FIFA was not offering like-for-like deals.
