On Wednesday, China's number 2 dairy company China Mengniu Dairy announced that they had signed on as a sponsor for the incoming 2018 World Cup that would be held in Russia, joining 3 other Chinese companies already signed on to sponsor the cup.
China Mengniu will be a second-tier sponsor and will be permitted to broadcast a seven-minute commercial during each of the 64 World Cup matches according to the company on their announcement.
Many speculations have emerged with this new sponsorship deal as it may mean that China may be looking into hosting the tournament.
Sponsorships for the 2018 competition are taking time because backers sign in more slowly after the fall out from the 2015 corruption scandal that affected FIFA. According to the investigations done regarding the scandal, officials from FIFA took almost $200 million in bribes from some sports-marketing executives in the Americas who are looking for media and marketing rights for the tournaments. The scandal got several leaders of FIFA removed from office and placed a shadow over the World Cup.
In an interview, FIFA's Chief Commercial Officer Philippe le Floc'h said "The 2018 event still needs two more sponsors. We have one in the pipeline, which is not a Chinese company. For the other one, we have various options."
Meanwhile, Mengniu's signing as one of the sponsors of the cup will allow the company to reach out to the world's 2.7 billion fans who will be tuning in.
According to the CEO of the company Lu Minfang, "This is a very important step for Mengniu to become global, and to rebuild the world's confidence for China's dairy industry."
A decade ago, many became scared of purchasing Chinese dairy due to an incident that poisoned thousands of children.
