By David Owen
November 25 – FIFA has announced the extension of its top tier sponsorship deal with Hyundai-Kia, the South Korean automotive group, by eight years, through to 2022.
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but its value to world football’s governing body is estimated at $250-$300 million over the full term of the contract.
The timing of the announcement is intriguing, coming about a week before the hosts of the two World Cups that will take place during the new contract term are revealed.
South Korea is bidding for the 2022 competition, but is widely seen as a comparative outsider, mainly because it co-hosted a World Cup with Japan as recently as 2002.
The contract extension is unlikely to do anything to change that.
The new deal comes too at a time when political tensions on the divided peninsula are running high in the wake of a surprise attack by North Korea on a South Korean island.
As first revealed by insideworldfootball.biz, South Korea’s bid includes proposals to stage some matches in its secretive northern neighbour, whose team ran Brazil close during this year’s World Cup in South Africa.
Relations between FIFA and the Hyundai group have long been close, with Chung Mong Joon, a FIFA vice-president, also a key figure at Hyundai Heavy Industries.
His brother, Chung Mong Koo, chairman and chief executive officer of Hyundai Motor Group, said he was “looking forward to taking an already successful partnership to the next level”.
Sepp Blatter, the FIFA President, said the partnership demonstrated “a shared philosophy and passion for the game of football”.
By the time the new deal finishes in 2022, Hyundai Motor Company will have been a FIFA sponsor for two decades.
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