Carlos Canto, Chief Executive Officer of SPSG Consulting, and Cinto Arjam, founder of CA Sports Marketing, have said that Cristiano Ronaldo and Paul Pogba would not have escaped punishment for their actions against EURO 2020 sponsors, Coca Cola and Heineken, if it had happened in the United States.
Ronaldo and Pogba had discarded the respective products of Coca Cola and Heineken at their press conferences.
DAILY POST understands that Ronaldo’s act in particular had cost Coca Cola $4billion within a few hours and both players are set to avoid retrospective punishment.
The experts noted that the players’ actions have shown the lack of power that both UEFA and the brands have in controlling how elite players behave towards sponsored products.
“If this was in the US, this would not happen,” Carlos Canto told Marca.
“If something like this happened in the NFL or the NBA, the player would have been punished. They have a very strict discipline regimen, you can’t do something like that.
Euro 2020: Pogba removes bottle of Heineken during press conference
“There are three parties that are implicated: Coca Cola, Cristiano Ronaldo and UEFA.
“If I were Coca-Cola, I would immediately call [UEFA] to say, ‘You have to protect me’,” Canto said.
Cinto Arjam noted that Ronaldo’s actions have set a dangerous precedent at all press conferences.
“The problem is not about Cristiano [Ronaldo},” Arjam said. “It’s about if Cristiano does it and nothing happens, why won’t [Antoine] Griezmann or [Sergio] Busquets do it?
“What footballers don’t understand is that although they want to send a good message, there is another reality: the footballer is employed by his national team to participate in a tournament like this and he must accept the rules of the game.
“Among them, there are sponsors and each national team must meet the sponsorship commitments.”
Both Cristiano Ronaldo and Paul Pogba won their opening Euro 2020 games with Portugal and France respectively.
While Ronaldo helped Portugal beat Hungary 3-0 and scored a brace in the process, Pogba put up a good show as France defeated Germany.
They will now face each other in their next games in Group F.
I have one year left at Man Utd – Pogba
