French team: the boycott of sponsors by Kylian Mbappé is “a fundamental questioning of football business”, explains a marketing expert

They don’t play together, but Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappé pull in the same direction. Last July, the Portuguese star caused a sensation at Euro 2021 by causing the Coca-Cola share price to fall on the stock market. How? ‘Or’ What ? By dismissing the famous soda placed in front of him at a press conference. A few days later, Paul Pogba imitated him, this time with a bottle of Heineken. On Tuesday, it was not one but six brands that Kylian Mbappé put aside. Invited like all the Blues to take part in a morning with the sponsors of the French team, the Parisian stood up to Volkswagen, Orange, Coca-Cola, Konami, Uber Eats and Xbox. And this despite the convention of the Blues which indicates that each player must submit to the marketing operations of the partners of the France team, which brings in around 25,000 euros per match for the players. A carefully considered decision, thus justified by the player and his clan: all the brands would not correspond to the values ​​of the player, who already donates his image rights to charities. In addition, the income generated by these contracts would not be redistributed enough to “bottom-up football”. The star of the Blues would also like more consultation between the players and the FFF on this subject. As mentioned above, Kylian Mbappé is not the first to challenge sponsors in the world of football. We could thus cite the famous example of Johan Cruyff, Puma muse in the 1970s, who had one of the three Adidas stripes removed from the Netherlands jersey. The difference is that in the Mbappé case, it does not concern a conflict with a personal contract of the player (he is only sponsored by Hublot, EA Sports and Nike). According to Le Parisien, it is the collaborations of the national team with BetClic, Coca-Cola and KFC that would bother Mbappé and his lawyer Maître Delphine Verheyden, who has been discussing the subject for several months with the FFF. But without winning. This explains the boycott on Tuesday morning, a decision that could be a milestone. General delegate of Sporsora, Magali Tézenas du Montcel admits to having been surprised by Mbappé’s gesture: “Yes, it surprised me, even if there had been the gesture of Ronaldo, Pogba or even that of Griezmann who gave up. its partner Huawei to support the Uyghurs. We knew that partners could leave an athlete who behaved incorrectly, but athletes who deny their sponsors, it’s quite recent. Also an expert in sports marketing, Gary Tribou adds: “Until now, a football player was someone who had no brains, no opinion, who hit the ball and that’s it. From the early in his career, Mbappé positioned himself as a player with an opinion. He’s not the only one to take a stand, to make a societal judgment, it’s pretty good for football.” If the intelligence of the genius of Bondy is often put forward, it should also be remembered that he is very well surrounded, insists Magali Tézenas du Montcel: “His lawyer is extremely competent, she pays great attention to the image of the athletes whose she takes care. It’s not at all the type to make a publicity stunt. Mbappé has few partners, he is committed, regularly donates money to associations.” By taking this decision, Kylian Mbappé therefore creates a precedent which goes in the direction of more consultation between the FFF and the players regarding the choice of partners. If the gesture is commendable, is this perspective plausible? “If you have to get the agreement of the players to sign partners, that will cause some problems. A player who plays for an institution must be in solidarity with the economic model of the institution or the competition. It is likely to multiply, if only for the other players of the France team. Magali Tézenas du Montcel at franceinfo: sport Magali Tézenas de Montcel summarizes: “For the image, it’s good, we prefer personalities with rough edges. On the other hand, for the economic model of football, I don’t see not how that can be reconciled. Where do we put the cursor? No brand will be 100% uncriticable.” A position supported by Gary Tribou, lecturer at the University of Strasbourg: “The best sponsors are those who have things to be forgiven, we call that exculpatory sponsorship. If we start to nitpick, which I I can understand from an ethical point of view, for example, we stop the World Cup in Qatar. It can go a long way. It’s a fairly fundamental questioning of the football business.” In the meantime, the question that remained was that of possible sanctions against the Frenchman. “The only way out is to minimize the affair. No one has an interest in making it a state affair on the front page of the media”, prophesied Gary Tribou, a few minutes before Noël Le Graët left the silence in the team [article payant]. “A letter from the lawyers of the Federation will be sent to Mbappé and his lawyer, confirmed Le Graët, who said he was against any form of sanction. We will see point by point what is problematic. We want to improve things and that people are happy, sponsors and players.” The president of the FFF recalls, in passing, that “all revenue goes to amateur football (90 M€ this season) and training”. Le Graët indicated that he would be content with a discussion in the coming days with the star of the Blues, before concluding: “The little worries are part of life. Kylian will be on the lawn in Marseille and I hope he will to be good.”