Sponsorship is crucial to most kinds of sport, which is why it is essential to retain key sponsors. However, sometimes sponsorships are not renewed, leaving athletes and their teams distraught. By considering the main reasons behind sponsors’ rejections for providing funding for sportsmen, strategies for avoiding these scenarios in the future can be devised. Thus, sport can be sustained and supported financially, developing and evolving beyond the current standards and promoting the cross-cultural dialogue by attracting new supporters abroad.
Unethical decisions made by athletes are one of the main reasons for sponsors to stop funding the events and refuse to renew sponsorship in the future. An example of such occurrence would be unethical conduct on social media, such as remarks that could be described as politically incorrect. For instance, the commentary that Manny Pacquiao made in a Philippian newspaper concerning homosexual people was deemed highly inappropriate, which immediately made his sponsors refuse from providing him with any support (Hague, 2016). Likewise, a case of doping usage will affect the career of an athlete drastically, causing all sponsors to seek other deals (Moghaddam, Rasouli, & Nekufar, 2017). Therefore, misconduct on social media, including racist, homophobic, or otherwise discriminatory remarks, and similar scenarios will most likely entail a refusal to renew the sponsorship.
To address the described problem, it is necessary to focus on ethics in sports, promoting positive changes in athletes. Namely, apart from pursuing physical improvements, athletes will also have to focus on their sociocultural development and embrace the ideas of diversity and multiculturalism. Furthermore, general ethical and moral principles, including the idea of rejecting prejudice and promoting collaboration, should be introduced to the realm of sport. As a result, with sufficient guidance and transformational leadership from their mentors, athletes will develop a public image that will grant them sponsorships from a number of investors.
References
Hague, T. (2016). What makes sports sponsors drop their clients? BBC News. Web.
Moghaddam, J. B., Rasouli, S., & Nekufar, M. (2017). The relationship between spiritual intelligence and team culture with the sports ethics of the athletes of sports teams. Bioethics Journal, 7(26), 77-84.