By Richard Milne in Vienna
Sponsors of the Olympic Games should not be responsible for standing up to the Chinese government over Tibet, because otherwise they would have to talk to every government around the world about every conflict, according to the chief executive of Adidas.
Herbert Hainer, the head of the world’s second-largest sporting goods company and a sponsor of the Beijing games this summer, said politicians and not companies should take the responsibility for such matters.
“If we, as a sponsor, had to stand up and speak against the government in China then at the next event we have to speak against the government in the US because we could talk about Guantánamo, we can talk about Eta in Spain and so on, and so on.
“So I definitely don’t think that this is the job of the sports companies and the sponsors of the Olympic Games,” he told the Financial Times.
Olympic sponsors have been put under great pressure from some lobby groups to speak out about human rights in Tibet or Darfur in Sudan. Western sponsors – which include Coca-Cola, General Electric and Volkswagen – have been forced to tread a fine line between keeping consumers onside in China and not offending customers in their home countries.
Mr Hainer argued that the heaviest criticism of China was coming mainly from a few countries such as France and Germany.
He added: “The Chinese market is a very big one for us and it will shortly be the second-biggest market in the world for us, after the US market. But once again, this is not the reason why we didn’t speak up on the Tibet conflict.”
Adidas could help the most in more discreet ways, such as improving working conditions and pay for its Chinese workers, he said.
Mr Hainer also underscored his belief that issues such as Tibet were a political, not a business, affair: “This conflict is, at least to my knowledge, 49 years old and it cannot be solved in a few weeks before the Olympic Games and therefore I definitely do believe that the politicians shouldn’t shift their responsibility away because this is their responsibility and they should take it.”
Speaking in Vienna where the 2008 Uefa European Football Championship is taking place, he said Adidas was “already one of the winners” from the competition in spite of arch-rival Nike having more teams in the quarterfinals. Adidas will earn “significantly more” than the €1.2bn ($1.9bn) it forecast.
He also said the election of a new US president this year would help the economy and consumer sentiment.
