MasterCard Wins World Cup Credit Card Sponsorship Case

by Mike Bevel,
Sports Commentator,
CollectionIndustry.com

Our long national nightmare is finally over: MasterCard kicked the hind-end of Visa out of the way and is firmly back in place as the only credit card sponsor of the World Cup – also known as “Soccer? Really? Again?”

MasterCard received an ugly surprise back in late October/early November when it found out that it had been kicked out of bed with the Federation Internationale de Football Association (Y.A.W.N.) in favor of the more exciting and new Visa. “No way,” MasterCard said. “Way,” Visa countered. Then there were lawsuits and hurt feelings and then Visa was required to bow out of the fray while MasterCard argued mightily for its place.

And now, thanks to some good ol’ American can-do-it-ness, MasterCard has come out on top with the help of U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska. Judge Preska, working out some material she hopes to launch with at a comedy club near you, said in her opinion that "MasterCard's loss of the next FIFA World Cup sponsorship would be, in its now-famous words, 'Priceless.'" Which, actually, doesn't make sense at all, Loretta, since we're dealing with quite a bit of "price" here.

The decision, released late on Wednesday, followed a bench trial by the judge. In her ruling, she said FIFA negotiators "lied repeatedly to MasterCard," including when they assured the company that FIFA "would not sign a deal for the post-2006 sponsorship rights with anyone else unless it could not reach agreement with MasterCard."

FIFA disagrees, of course, and alleges that it has acted in all ways as honorable as possible when trying to pull a fast one on MasterCard by going with Visa. The group said it is "convinced that at all times it acted in good faith" and will "vigorously pursue its case." FIFA, which is based in Zurich, said an arbitration tribunal there "is competent to hear this dispute, and FIFA awaits the outcome of this proceeding."

Doing some damage control of its own, Visa, proud sponsor of the Winter Olympics, said in a statement that during the trial it was "surprised and dismayed to learn that during the negotiations, FIFA had not been truthful with Visa regarding its obligations to MasterCard."

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