Ronaldo and Coca-Cola: "You have to take into account the impact of an athlete"
Cristiano Ronaldo, the star of the Portuguese football team of Euro 2020, has withdrawn two bottles of Coca-Cola from the table where he is about to give a press conference.
Handout via REUTERS - HANDOUT
Text by: Ariane Gaffuri Follow
6 mins
Cristiano Ronaldo who sets aside two bottles of Coca-Cola placed in front of him at a press conference.
Paul Pogba who does the same with a bottle of Heineken.
What consequences do these gestures of defiance have for brands that spend tens of millions of euros to finance their sport?
Some answers with Laurent Damiani, co-founder of Global Sports Week.
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A seemingly harmless gesture yet fraught with consequences.
On Monday, at a pre-match press conference for Euro 2021, the Portuguese
Cristiano Ronaldo moved the two bottles of Coca-Cola
placed in front of him
out of the field of the camera
, calling instead for a drink of water.
Sponsor of the competition, the American giant saw its stock market title fall by $ 4 billion.
The gesture was repeated the next day by Frenchman Paul Pogba, this time with a bottle of Heineken beer.
These reactions of mistrust on the part of the players have been welcomed by the followers of public health, but denounced by a number of analysts who recall that the sponsors spend tens of millions of euros to finance their sport.
RFI: Do football stars like Cristiano Ronaldo or Paul Pogba have the obligation to endorse the sponsors? Do they risk sanctions if they challenge them?
Laurent Damiani
: This is a European competition with national teams and the players are involved in their selection for the national team, not for a club.
The sponsors have signed contracts with the European body, with UEFA in this case, for the Euro football.
National teams therefore have an obligation to respect them.
Those who could be sanctioned, if there were sanctions, would therefore be the national teams.
The players would be affected not directly, but by way of consequences.
There are bound to be discussions that need to take place to know what position UEFA should take, because what happened with Ronaldo vis-à-vis Coca-Cola also happened with Pogba vis-à-vis Coca-Cola. vis-à-vis Heineken.
This means that there can be new incidents like this, a snowball effect.
UEFA will therefore have to react.
Brands, they have no interest in reacting, because showing that they must be tough to enforce their contract, is not a good sign.
Rather, they seek to create sympathy and to have the athletes on their side who will endorse their product.
What consequences does this distrust of players have for brands?
The consequences are significant in terms of image. As we have seen, this had an immediate impact on the price of Coca-Cola on the stock market. But beyond that, we must take into account the strength of an athlete and the impact he has on his community. Today, athletes like Ronaldo and Pogba have a fan base that far exceeds club communities or even UEFA.
These fan communities travel with the players. When Ronaldo left Real Madrid, he took all his fans with him. All the "followers" he had on social networks followed him to his new club, Juventus Turin. The image strength of a sportsperson is colossal and this is not always taken into account at the level of European bodies, in this case UEFA, which tends to impose marks on athletes who are not ready to play the game or in any case who do not feel concerned by these contracts, when they should be. Indirectly, they are because sponsors like Coca-Cola or Heineken allow events like Euro football to be organized and allow these players to shine.
So there is an environment that should be rather virtuous and everyone should play the game. But what I mainly see is that athletes don't want to be used, or maybe they feel like they are. instrumentalised and do not want brands or products imposed on them that do not conform to their own values.
Maybe Pogba, beyond the fact that he didn't sign with Heineken, doesn't want to be likened to an alcoholic drink.
Likewise, Ronaldo, who tries to promote healthy sport and shows this commitment on the pitch, does not want to be associated with a sugary drink.
Athletes themselves want to convey messages related to nutrition or even political and environmental messages, messages against racism ...
Are there not double standards? A few years ago, Ronaldo, the first, was doing commercials for Coca-Cola and even for KFC?
This is a good point.
Without doubt, the players seek to be considered more, to be part of the dialogue between sports institutions, brands and events.
They are key players and it is true that today, in this ecosystem, we do not give them a voice.
It is also a way of saying that they exist and that the show exists thanks to them.
But I agree: there is a form of hypocrisy about how they can display themselves if the brand is one of their direct sponsor.
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