Hyundai, Adidas, Sony, Coca-Cola and Visa have all expressed extreme misgivings over the allegations which saw the United States, South Korea, Japan and Australia all pipped to the post by the one country nobody expected to even have a prayer - Qatar.
The only sponsor to have kept a deafening silence on the concerns so far is Emirates. The report on the allegations of corruption from Fifa's ethics committee is due out sometime in mid-July and Fifa president Sepp Blatter has urged sponsors that it will need more time if it is to investigate the
allegations thoroughly.
Vice president Jim Boyce has already
backed another vote of the venue for the 2022 World Cup, if allegations of corruption are confirmed. It is claimed that Qatar's former Fifa vice-president, Mohamed bin Hammam, paid more than $5m to soccer bigwigs around the world to help win support for Qatar in the run-up to the World Cup vote, which took place in December 2010.
Visa and Adidas, Fifa's most loyal serving sponsor, have joined Sony in demanding that claims of bribery be
taken more seriously.
