FIDE Cooperation Agreement with Coca-Cola

[David Sedgwick]

https://www.fide.com/component/content/ ... -cola.html

The benefits don't seem to include free Diet Coke for International Arbiters, not even those in Category A.

Perhaps that will come in time.

[Roger de Coverly]

I see they've toned down the popularity claim to something that's believable.

Chess is not only the most popular of all games, played by millions of people

[J T Melsom]

Anybody able to explain why this agreement is a good thing?

[John Hickman]

Anybody able to explain why this agreement is a good thing?

Anybody able to explain why this agreement is the real thing?

[John Hickman]

Could mean a new dress code for arbiters...

[Mick Norris]

Anybody able to explain why this agreement is a good thing?

If so, perhaps point them towards Mark Thomas' book

[David Sedgwick]

Anybody able to explain why this agreement is a good thing?

If so, perhaps point them towards Mark Thomas' book

The FIDE announcement explains the perceived benefits.

Any commercial company, and any commercial sponsorship, will have its critics. If FIDE were to reject all of them, it would effectively be back in the Ilyumzhinov era, when virtually no such sponsorships were on offer.

[Nigel Short]

Anybody able to explain why this agreement is a good thing?

Coca-Cola is a very large international company with a globally recognised brand-name. The current FIDE administration believes that it should raise most of its funds from sponsorship - like all successful international sporting bodies. So far we have doubled the FIDE budget. If you think that wrong, perhaps you prefer the "Makro-economic" model of 92% of FIDE funding coming from federations, players, arbiters, trainers and organisers? If so, you would be in complete agreement with the English Chess Federation, which voted unanimously to support the intellectually (and otherwise) bankrupt Greek.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"The benefits don't seem to include free Diet Coke for International Arbiters, not even those in Category A. "

Even FIDE doesn't have that much money...

[J T Melsom]

It may very well be the case that most global corporations transgress ethical standards, but that doesn't mean accepting funding without due regard to those standards. I don't personally know whether Coca Cola is significantly worse than its competitors, but it does no harm to inform ourselves about the track record of potential supporters of chess, and then decide whether we are happy. If the incidents outlined by Mark Thomas are still commonplace ten years on from publishing his book then we might conclude it is money we would rather not have. Its the consistent failure to acknowledge that there are ethical considerations that is unacceptable. It says that we care more about chess than the victims of the transgressions.

[Nigel Short]

It may very well be the case that most global corporations transgress ethical standards, but that doesn't mean accepting funding without due regard to those standards. I don't personally know whether Coca Cola is significantly worse than its competitors, but it does no harm to inform ourselves about the track record of potential supporters of chess, and then decide whether we are happy. If the incidents outlined by Mark Thomas are still commonplace ten years on from publishing his book then we might conclude it is money we would rather not have. Its the consistent failure to acknowledge that there are ethical considerations that is unacceptable. It says that we care more about chess than the victims of the transgressions.

Cut the waffle. Is it a good or a bad thing, in your opinion? Unless you have been living on a desert island all your life, you will be familiar with Coca-Cola. I therefore trust you are sufficiently informed to form an opinion.

[J T Melsom]

If the information in Mark Thomas' book is accurate and no significant improvements to ethical standards have been made, then for me it is a bad thing.
I don't buy the argument that just because other global sporting bodies are happy to accept the money its ok. I'd rather there were higher ethical standards and rather less cosying up of global bodies.

[David Sedgwick]

If you think that wrong, perhaps you prefer the "Makro-economic" model of 92% of FIDE funding coming from federations, players, arbiters, trainers and organisers? If so, you would be in complete agreement with the English Chess Federation, which voted unanimously to support the intellectually (and otherwise) bankrupt Greek.

For the record, it was the ECF Board which took that decision and voted in that way.

[Simon Brown]

Hi Nigel, clearly it's a good thing, I doubt anyone sensible thinks otherwise. Can you elaborate on the nuance of "Cooperation Agreement" and not "Sponsorship"?

[J T Melsom]

Hi Simon - is it a good thing that large multinational corporations are allowed to get away with low ethical standards? Most sensible people would say that forcing people to work in inhumane conditions, diverting local water supplies to service bottling plants etc was not a good thing! This is a financially bankrupt body doing a deal with a morally bankrupt one. It may not be the worst, but we shouldn't just shrug our shoulders and accept that's the way things are.