FIFA Fires Four Involved in Credit Card Imbroglio

by Mike Bevel, CollectionIndustry.com

Visa’s not the only one who lost in the recent decision to uphold MasterCard’s hold on the World Cup sponsorship. FIFA, soccer's governing body, fired four employees involved in the imbroglio: its director of marketing and TV, and three others in the division, for dishonest sponsorship negotiations.

"The FIFA employees who had conducted negotiations with Visa and MasterCard were accused of repeated dishonesty during negotiations and of giving false information to the FIFA deciding bodies in question," FIFA said in a statement.

The move appears to exonerate Visa, which has alleged all along that it wasn’t aware of any wrong-doings on its part. "Even though the judgment has proved to be very biased in favor of MasterCard, the fact cannot be overlooked that FIFA's negotiations breached its business principles. FIFA cannot possibly accept such conduct among its own employees,” the statement continued.

FIFA said it is considering lodging an appeal against the court's judgment in favor of MasterCard – mostly because Visa was willing to fork over a little more in the way of dough – while also seeking suitable solutions for all parties involved.

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