Sweet FA? Football Associations, workers' rights, and the World Cup
Monday, 05 June 2006 10:21
The world's Football Associations will make over £200m from sponsorship and licensing arrangements this year, while their sponsors are expecting hundreds of millions of pounds in additional revenue from World Cup goods.
Meanwhile, the people stitching the footballs, sewing the shirts and glueing the boots that will earn this money are working late into the night, six or seven days a week, for poverty wages. Those that attempt to form trade unions to try to improve their working conditions are persecuted and often lose their jobs.
Download the full report as a .pdf (527Kb)
"FIFA...acknowledges the prominent role of sport, and especially football, as a vehicle for delivering clear and firm messages to eradicate the huge blights undermining society around the world."
- Joseph S Blatter, FIFA President. [1]
"We're more than satisfied with the sales of World Cup products. We'll meet all the goals we have set ourselves for the World Cup. We're going to sell more than 10 million footballs, 500 000 football shirts of the German national team and more than 1.5 million Adidas football shirts."
– Herbert Hainer, Chairman of Adidas,which recently secured a £190 million extension of its sponsorship deal with FIFA. [2]
“We have overtime work until 11pm or midnight every day. The price they pay us per piece is so low, so there is no point to us working such long hours. If our income was higher, I would have no complaints. But all we have now is exhaustion and a low income. Some of us do not even have enough money to spend on food. It is more than we can bear.”
– Woman producing sportswear for Adidas. [3]
