U.S. Soccer Sponsors Keep Low Profile in Qatar as They Eagerly Await 2026 World Cup in America
U.S. Soccer was met with controversy almost immediately in Qatar when it altered its training facility and media workroom with multicolored brand marks, a decision rooted in the soccer body’s “Be the Change” mantra as it showed support for LGBTQ+ fans in the conversative Middle Eastern nation, where homosexuality is illegal.
Later in the tournament, the Iran soccer federation called for the U.S. men’s team to be removed from the World Cup after its digital staff posted an altered Iranian flag on social media in support of protests in Iran. (The U.S. team account deleted the posts shortly thereafter.)
Captains from seven European teams planned to wear “One Love” armbands to support diversity and inclusion in Qatar but later opted against the idea due to FIFA pressure. Other forms of dissent have included German players’ protesting FIFA’s armband rule, in addition to Wales’ displaying rainbow flags at its training facility to show solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community.
On top of all of this, a top Qatari official recently told Piers Morgan that “between 400 and 500” workers died while building out new infrastructure for the tournament.
In an interview with Morning Consult, Roger Bennett, co-host of the NBC Sports soccer TV show and podcast “Men in Blazers,” said the collision of sport and politics at the World Cup is not new, but this year’s event “holds up a mirror in times of human darkness, too, and that's ultimately what we're grappling with." At a live show taping in Manhattan last month, Bennett put it more bluntly: “This is a World Cup that is soaked in blood.”
Unlike FIFA sponsors, U.S. Soccer’s sponsors predominantly avoid being associated with any of Qatar’s many controversies, according to interviews with sponsors, soccer experts and marketers. Still, they haven’t been immune: The World Cup began with a public dust-up between Anheuser-Busch InBev SA’s Budweiser and Qatar and FIFA, which reversed the decision to allow the sale of alcoholic beer during matches at the last minute.
If that’s the worst brand-related controversy in Qatar, the team’s sponsors will likely be thrilled, given the sheer amount of social and political baggage that’s weighed down the tournament. On the horizon is a 2026 World Cup in North America, where sponsors are feverish about the confluence of the U.S. men’s national team’s rise and the return of the Cup after more than 20 years.
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