FIDE Cooperation Agreement with Coca-Cola

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Nigel Short
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Re: FIDE Cooperation Agreement with Coca-Cola

Post by Nigel Short » Wed Jun 12, 2019 4:10 pm

J T Melsom wrote:
Wed Jun 12, 2019 2:05 pm
If the information in Mark Thomas' book is accurate and no significant improvements to ethical standards have been made, then for me it is a bad thing.
I don't buy the argument that just because other global sporting bodies are happy to accept the money its ok. I'd rather there were higher ethical standards and rather less cosying up of global bodies.
And I presume, therefore, that you believe that the IOC has been wrong to accept sponsorship money from Coca-Cola, as it has done at every Olympic Games since 1928?

J T Melsom
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Re: FIDE Cooperation Agreement with Coca-Cola

Post by J T Melsom » Wed Jun 12, 2019 4:15 pm

Essentially yes. Its a cosy alliance of big organisations and has little to do with ethics. [ It is of course conceivable that for some of that period Coca cola was a responsible corporate body -the evidence is that it has left that responsibility behind in its quest for global dominance.] Easy for those of us who haven't suffered to accept the money, but lets not pretend it doesn't have baggage attached.

Simon Brown
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Re: FIDE Cooperation Agreement with Coca-Cola

Post by Simon Brown » Wed Jun 12, 2019 4:17 pm

J T Melsom wrote:
Wed Jun 12, 2019 4:07 pm
Hi Simon - is it a good thing that large multinational corporations are allowed to get away with low ethical standards? Most sensible people would say that forcing people to work in inhumane conditions, diverting local water supplies to service bottling plants etc was not a good thing! This is a financially bankrupt body doing a deal with a morally bankrupt one. It may not be the worst, but we shouldn't just shrug our shoulders and accept that's the way things are.
You're entitled to your opinion of course. Without doing any research I assume Coca-Cola sponsorship/cooperation money has been accepted by many organisations and I don't see any good reason for FIDE to rule itself out. And it is nice to see FIDE being commercial rather than relying on the largesse (?) of individuals.

J T Melsom
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Re: FIDE Cooperation Agreement with Coca-Cola

Post by J T Melsom » Wed Jun 12, 2019 4:24 pm

Of course the money has been accepted by others - I'm not especially keen on that either. If you believe ethical standards are important in commercial life whether paying proper tax or paying staff properly, not ravaging the environment, then you don't take the money. We are only discussing FIDE because its a chess forum - similar discussions could be had in other places about deals with FIFA etc. But there is an awful lot of 'white privilege' being expressed in this thread. Just as long as chess gets a cut that's ok.

Nigel Short
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Re: FIDE Cooperation Agreement with Coca-Cola

Post by Nigel Short » Wed Jun 12, 2019 4:29 pm

J T Melsom wrote:
Wed Jun 12, 2019 4:15 pm
Essentially yes. Its a cosy alliance of big organisations and has little to do with ethics. [ It is of course conceivable that for some of that period Coca cola was a responsible corporate body -the evidence is that it has left that responsibility behind in its quest for global dominance.] Easy for those of us who haven't suffered to accept the money, but lets not pretend it doesn't have baggage attached.
Quod erat demonstrandum. I rest my case, m'lud.

J T Melsom
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Re: FIDE Cooperation Agreement with Coca-Cola

Post by J T Melsom » Wed Jun 12, 2019 4:38 pm

Nigel

Just for clarity - are you paid for your services on behalf of FIDE?

Matthew Turner
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Re: FIDE Cooperation Agreement with Coca-Cola

Post by Matthew Turner » Wed Jun 12, 2019 4:53 pm

This is tremendous news for FIDE. In the order of ethicalness, coke must rank very highly - it isn't gambling, drinking or drugs; There are loads of sports who would love to get coke on board. I would assume that coke would only want to partner with organisation/events that it saw as highly ethical too, so this is a ringing endorsement of the Dvorkovich regime.

J T Melsom
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Re: FIDE Cooperation Agreement with Coca-Cola

Post by J T Melsom » Wed Jun 12, 2019 5:19 pm

A white-wash and in most cases barely five minutes spent researching the conduct of the multi-national concerned.

NickFaulks
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Re: FIDE Cooperation Agreement with Coca-Cola

Post by NickFaulks » Wed Jun 12, 2019 5:40 pm

Simon Brown wrote:
Wed Jun 12, 2019 4:00 pm
Hi Nigel, clearly it's a good thing, I doubt anyone sensible thinks otherwise.
Quite right.
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a QR code stamped on a human face — forever.

Paul Cooksey
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Re: FIDE Cooperation Agreement with Coca-Cola

Post by Paul Cooksey » Wed Jun 12, 2019 6:16 pm

Simon Brown wrote:
Wed Jun 12, 2019 4:00 pm
Hi Nigel, clearly it's a good thing, I doubt anyone sensible thinks otherwise. Can you elaborate on the nuance of "Cooperation Agreement" and not "Sponsorship"?
It is clearly good if you believe in any sort of corporate sponsorship. I do. Coca-Cola an A-list partner.

Alex H asked Emil the second question on Facebook "Sponsorship is just about money. Here we talk a bit broader. For example, possible invitation of Grandmasters to give talks at Coca-Cola, etc"

Roger de Coverly
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Re: FIDE Cooperation Agreement with Coca-Cola

Post by Roger de Coverly » Wed Jun 12, 2019 6:21 pm

J T Melsom wrote:
Wed Jun 12, 2019 5:19 pm
A white-wash and in most cases barely five minutes spent researching the conduct of the multi-national concerned.
In the absence of a high profile well supported campaign to boycott Coca-Cola and its numerous brands which include Costa Coffee, there isn't a justification for FIDE or for that matter the ECF to stick its neck out.

J T Melsom
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Re: FIDE Cooperation Agreement with Coca-Cola

Post by J T Melsom » Wed Jun 12, 2019 6:30 pm

There is a recommendation to boycott - Ethical Consumer website puts it bottom of cola products available in the UK. And there are the issues raised by Mark Thomas. I'm not sure the idea that 'there is no high profile campaign - we can probably get away with it' is exactly ethical. Every week or so, museums and other public bodies have to take difficult decisions on accepting sponsorship, there shouldn't be this implicit rush to take the money and ask questions later.

And just to be clear I'm not opposed to corporate sponsorship, I just feel there should be rather more care taken about the choice of partners than was apparent. And if some of the issues highlighted up thread are still live and unresolved then I'm more than happy to publicise them.

And a further five minutes research under boycott Coca Cola suggests issues and boycotts are current. I'd suggest that the lack of awareness of these campaigns may be due to (a) looking in the wrong place (b) vested interests - given the advertising revenue involved, it might not be a terribly prominent news story for most media outlets.
Last edited by J T Melsom on Wed Jun 12, 2019 7:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Alex Holowczak
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Re: FIDE Cooperation Agreement with Coca-Cola

Post by Alex Holowczak » Wed Jun 12, 2019 7:25 pm

In the interest of full disclosure, I strongly prefer Pepsi Max to Coca Cola. I hope that at future FIDE Congresses, I will not be prevented from drinking my preferred beverage due to the co-operation agreement. :P
Paul Cooksey wrote:
Wed Jun 12, 2019 6:16 pm
Simon Brown wrote:
Wed Jun 12, 2019 4:00 pm
Hi Nigel, clearly it's a good thing, I doubt anyone sensible thinks otherwise. Can you elaborate on the nuance of "Cooperation Agreement" and not "Sponsorship"?
It is clearly good if you believe in any sort of corporate sponsorship. I do. Coca-Cola an A-list partner.

Alex H asked Emil the second question on Facebook "Sponsorship is just about money. Here we talk a bit broader. For example, possible invitation of Grandmasters to give talks at Coca-Cola, etc"
Indeed I did, and I found the answer rather underwhelming.

Sponsorship isn't just about money; for example, when Santander sponsored McLaren, you couldn't miss the sight of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button plastered around on Santander advertisements in most UK cities. So it would be quite normal that if Coca Cola sponsored FIDE, they might expect to use certain chess players in their marketing. If the aim is for Grandmasters to give talks, then it seems that Coca Cola don't see chess as something it should be sponsoring, and is actually seeking something different - hence a "co-operation agreement". Given Coca Cola could phone the CEO of a Premier League football club if they wanted genuine commercial sponsorship, or an NFL owner, it's clear that they don't see chess as being able to offer them that sort of relationship, which is what I would expect given chess's comparative lack of TV/media exposure.

The announcement says there will be sponsorship though, for two events:
1. The Polish League, which is an independent event nothing really to do with FIDE directly, but makes sense given it is Coca Cola Poland who is sponsoring it.
2. A tournament in Riga in July, presumably a side event of the FIDE Grand Prix.

Hopefully the co-operation agreement builds on those, but for now I think this announcement just represents a foot in the door. A very welcome good start, and hopefully it will flourish into more tournaments being sponsored.

J T Melsom
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Re: FIDE Cooperation Agreement with Coca-Cola

Post by J T Melsom » Wed Jun 12, 2019 7:48 pm

Will Nakamura be prevented from drinking Red Bull if he participates in a Coca Cola event? I've seen tennis players required to turn drink bottles round and/or remove labelling at some events.

Matthew Turner
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Re: FIDE Cooperation Agreement with Coca-Cola

Post by Matthew Turner » Thu Jun 13, 2019 8:50 am

Here is a list of the top 50 companies in the US by market cap
http://www.iweblists.com/us/commerce/Ma ... ation.html

Coca-Cola sits 22nd with a market cap of 219bn

With companies of this size, they will be involved in so many different areas there will always be something about their business that you could choose to object to, but fundamentally if you object to sponsorship from Coca-Cola then you object to Capitalism. That is your prerogative of course, but that is definitely a minority view.

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