Sony will end its 8 year long sponsorship deal with the international governing body of association football, FIFA, Nikkei reports.
To be clear this sponsorship deal is with FIFA not EA sports so expect the FIFA video game franchise to remain on PlayStation platforms for years to come.
The Tech giant Sony has been a partner with FIFA since 2006 in a contact worth $280 million USD. A termination of the sponsorship deal would follow Emirates Airline’s and Coca Cola’s announcements this month that they were ending their sponsorships of Fifa, an enormous blow to the governing body as it investigates whether there was corruption in the bidding process for both the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. A FIFA spokesperson commented on the matter:
“The existing contract with Sony runs until 31 December 2014 and we are currently in discussions with the brand.”
Sony promotes PlayStation in addition to other brands such as ‘Bravia’ in many football matches through-out Europe, the company also has relations with UEFA where the PlayStation products such as the PS4, PS3 and Vita are promoted during champions league matches.