World Cup woes

World Cup woesWorld Cup woesIts less than a week after the Satyam saga began unfolding, and already were finding some pretty major potential ramifications that stretch up to five years into the future. CNBC SportsBiz blogger Darren Rovell reports that the company had signed on as the official IT sponsor of soccers quadrennial gala event, the FIFA World Cup - a verstndigung im strafverfahren that now seems in not a little danger of falling apart. Rovell notes that the company had struck a deal to sponsor both the 2010 tournament in South Africa (an event already mired in enough corruption and controversy of its own) and the 2014 event in Brazil. With sponsorship deals going at around $90 million per tournament, its difficult to see any other IT firm stepping up to the plate with a similar deal in this economic climate, leaving a substantial hole in the budget of one of the most-watched sporting events in the world. Guess that means the folks at FIFA will have to cross their fingers an d hope for extra sales of stuffed Zakumi dolls, the tournaments official mascot. -Posted by Phil Stott