Demand the withdrawal of Coca-Cola from the World Cup!

Sports are about health, and international sporting events should promote healthy lifestyles. This should be a condition for promoting and broadcasting these events across the world, where obesity and diabetes have reached epidemic levels, becoming one of today’s most pressing public health issues.

In many countries, sugar-sweetened beverages have become the main source of added sugars in people’s diet, particularly for children. It has been proven that sugar-sweetened beverages like soft drinks contribute to the development of diseases like obesity and diabetes in both children and adults. A child who consumes one soft drink a day increases her ...

Sports are about health, and international sporting events should promote healthy lifestyles. This should be a condition for promoting and broadcasting these events across the world, where obesity and diabetes have reached epidemic levels, becoming one of today’s most pressing public health issues.

In many countries, sugar-sweetened beverages have become the main source of added sugars in people’s diet, particularly for children. It has been proven that sugar-sweetened beverages like soft drinks contribute to the development of diseases like obesity and diabetes in both children and adults. A child who consumes one soft drink a day increases her probability of developing obesity by 60% and of developing diabetes by 26%.

The World Health Organization (WHO), along with various international organizations such as the World Obesity Federation, World Cancer Research Fund International, the International Diabetes Federation and others, recommend and support measures to reduce consumption of these beverages, including levying taxes on these products, banning their marketing to children, removing them from schools, and mandating front-of-package labels that warn consumers about high sugar content.

The FIFA is acting against health and against children’s rights by making The Coca-Cola Company its prime sponsor. This company uses the FIFA platform, its international events and the World Cup to advertise consumption of its products, associating them with sports and healthy lifestyles. The Coca-Cola sponsored FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour, the promotion of Coca-Cola consumption on all types of advertising linked to the World Cup, the launch of albums and collectible stamps with players from the national teams that are gifted with product purchases, and hiring star players to market its products, are converting the FIFA and the World Cup into one of the greatest stages for promoting the consumption of these beverages.

FIFA has established a Human Rights Advisory Board, declaring that “FIFA is committed to respecting all internationally recognized human rights and shall strive to promote the protection of these rights.” In practice, FIFA is threatening the right to health and children’s rights by accepting sponsorships from companies that make and sell food and beverages that pose a risk to health.

Agreeing to promote this type of product is tremendously irresponsible in a world in which obesity has been recognized as one of the leading threats to health, especially children’s health.

For the health of our children, let’s demand that FIFA stop promoting these products in its sports events!

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Urge FIFA to remove Coca-Cola sponsorship from the World Cup!

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By sending this petition, you will become part of an international effort to prevent international soccer events like the World Cup from being used to promote the consumption of unhealthy products, like sugar-sweetened beverages, which have become one of the leading causes of the global obesity and diabetes epidemics. You will especially be helping to protect children from this type of marketing. McDonald’s has already withdrawn from sponsorship of the Olympics because of protests; we want to remove Coca-Cola from the World Cup and make sure sporting events are used to promote healthy lifestyles.

Sugar-sweetened beverages like Coca-Cola are being regulated: they are banned from schools; may not be marketed to children under 12; and are subject to special taxes in a number of countries and cities. All of these measures are intended to reduce their consumption, since scientific evidence today has proven that even a single can a day is harmful to human health.

Help us by signing this petition addressed to FIFA President Gianni Infantino, and members of the FIFA Human Rights Advisory Board: Lene Wendland at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sylvia Schenk of Transparency International Germany, Ignacio Packer of Terres des Hommes and Rachel Davis of Shift.

FIFA should exercise a commitment to health, especially children’s health!

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Dear Mr./Ms.,

I strongly disagree with the fact that the World Cup soccer championships and international events held under the FIFA name are associated with the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and with marketing by The Coca-Cola Company. I ask for this sponsorship to be canceled. FIFA is creating an association between this sport and the consumption of an unhealthy product, allowing it to be advertised in the context of a major world event. This creates a misleading connection between sports, healthy lifestyles, and consumption of a product that is causing human health problems around the world, particularly among children.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), obesity has reached epidemic levels around the world and “childhood obesity is one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century.” The WHO created a Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity, comprised of an international group of renowned specialists; one of the commission’s most urgent recommendations is “to implement comprehensive programmes that promote the intake of healthy foods and reduce the intake of unhealthy foods and sugar-sweetened beverages by children and adolescents.”

In many countries, sugar-sweetened beverages have become the primary source of added sugars in the population’s diet, especially among children. The WHO, as well as various international organizations like the World Obesity Federation, World Cancer Research Fund International, the International Diabetes Federation and many others, are recommending and supporting measures to reduce consumption of these beverages, including levying taxes on such products, banning their marketing to children, removing them from schools, and mandating front-of-package labels that warn consumers about high sugar content.

We demand that FIFA respect the human right to health and children’s rights, by pledging to never allow this type of action to recur and by committing to the promotion of sports and health for the entire population, especially boys and girls, rather than acting against their interests.

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