Fans evicted and pundit sacked over World Cup "ambush" |
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Organisers of the World Cup ejected 36 female Dutch fans from the Netherlands-Denmark game on Monday for alleged ambush marketing activities. It emerged seperately the tickets used by the fans were given to a marketing agency by pundit Robbie Earle, from UK commercial broadcaster ITV, who was dismissed with immediate effect.
FIFA claimed the women at the Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg were wearing orange mini dresses that were part of a promotion campaign from brewery Bavaria in Netherlands. The women claimed they were simply supporting their country. Official sponsor Budweiser is the only beer company allowed to advertise within Fifa venues and Fifa fiercely protects its lucrative marketing interests. FIFA spokesperson Nicolas Maingot said the governing body was considering “all available legal remedies” against the brewery. ITV said yesterday that "a substantial number of tickets allocated to Robbie Earle for family and friends have been passed to a third party in breach of FIFA rules." Earle, also an ambassador for England's 2018 World Cup bid, said: "Call me naive but I didn't think I was doing anything wrong." |
