The decisive factor in the decision of the IOC concerning the participation of Russian athletes at the Olympics in Rio may be the opinion of the sponsors. According to USA Today, if they deem that the doping scandal will seriously damage the image of the competition, you can speak out against participation of the Russian team. However, at the moment all the major sponsors of the Olympics like Coca-Cola, Visa and others, prefer to remain silent and do not comment on doping scandal, says Sputnik.
So, despite a two-year disqualification, tennis player Maria Sharapova, the big companies, which concluded with her endorsement deals, do not hurry to refuse to cooperate with the athlete. The company Head, producing, among other things, a tennis racket, even issued a statement saying that he was proud of the cooperation with Sharapova, according to Sputnik.
Such a reaction can be expected from other foreign sponsors at risk of losing multimillion-dollar profits, said in an interview with Sputnik financial analyst and economic analyst of the “Expert” magazine Queen Anne.
According to the Queen, no matter how evolved doping scandal, sponsors are well aware of how long and how hard the athletes were headed for their achievements. In addition to Competitions they participated in other international competitions, and we cannot say that all their victories are the result of doping.
With the success of Russian athletes were watched by thousands of fans who are the target audience of the sponsors of the Olympics. Sponsors understand that regardless of the participation of Maria Sharapova in the Olympic games in Rio, it will still be a sports star of the first magnitude, but the doping claims to it is still controversial, said the expert.
The decision of the world anti-doping Agency (WADA) on the prohibition of Meldonium, the use of which accused Sharapova, was not based on extensive clinical trials. While scientific publications proving that Meldonium is doping. Dense fog without concrete evidence is observed in the report of the independent Commission of the world anti-doping Agency (WADA) under the chairmanship of Richard McLaren of the alleged large scale tampering of doping control at the Olympic winter games of 2014 in Sochi, according to Sputnik.
Manufacturer of bottles for doping tests — the Swiss company Berlinger Special AG — has already said he doubts the correctness of the report of McLaren, as the company regularly tests the test vials. And these tests clearly showed that to open the sealed samples was not possible, including the model of the bottle from Sochi-2014, reports Sputnik.
While opinions about that doping scandal politicized, there has been a lot. And the sponsoring company in this case is unlikely to be ready to go on about the politicians losing media persons that bring them millions, says Anna Queen.
Policy greatly harms future competition. But there are marketing departments making decisions based on the market situation. And it is this: there are brands that invest millions, and there are media persons who promote these brands. The company will enter into contracts with them regardless of what happens, because I understand that their niche can take their competitors, the expert believes.
Firms in any case will feel the pressure on their advertising campaign, says the Queen. In the West, the Russian athletes, as the output has already offered to act not under the Russian flag and under the flag of the IOC. But the Russians refused and agreed to speak only under the flag of your country – Isinbayeva has already made it clear that it would be only under the flag of their country. According to Queen, is “totally Patriotic solution – if someone had hoped that he was wrong”.
The doping scandal however, only creates additional news basis for brand companies that they were most frequent in the media. It is no coincidence that there is even such a term as “black PR”, he said.
And he is sometimes even more effective than the most elaborate “white PR”. Therefore, from the sponsors, there is no loss of image if they continue to support the Russian athletes. And the case with Sharapova obvious proof. But there are great risks of companies losing millions, sums up Sputnik.
