Sponsors of the Copa América "risk their brands getting tarnished rather than polished," according to Juan Pablo Spinetto of BLOOMBERG. Football's "oldest national team competition starts in Chile on Thursday under the cloud of the FIFA investigation." Fundação Getulio Vargas Professor of Sports Law Pedro Trengrouse said that the scandal "poses a risk to companies, including Spanish bank Banco Santander SA and MasterCard Inc., who sponsor the tournament, because their brands may be contaminated through their association with FIFA." He said, "One way or the other, all this money comes from the companies, so these companies in the end are responsible for injecting money into soccer. They need to keep watch for their brands not to be associated with these corruption scandals." Chicago-based sponsorship consultant IEG Senior VP Jim Andrews said that the event "probably generates" $60M in sponsorship revenue, "including in-kind arrangements." Sponsors of the 2015 Copa América have "maintained their backing, with some of them limiting their public statements to say they are monitoring developments." Kellogg Co., another Copa América sponsor, said that backing the event brings "an opportunity to promote sports" in Latin America while continuing to monitor the situation, echoing comments by Kia Motors Corp., one of three platinum, or top-level, sponsors. Other sponsors, such as Banco Santander and mobile-phone operator Claro -- owned by billionaire Carlos Slim's America Movil SAB -- "declined to comment" (BLOOMBERG, 6/9).
