Fifa signs Chinese sponsor

China’s Hisense Group has signed with FIFA to become a World Cup sponsor, a major win for an organisation dogged by a corruption scandal and struggling to enlist corporate partners for the world’s most popular sporting contest.

Hisense, a maker of consumer electronics largely unheard-of outside its home country, joins McDonald’s and Budweiser in the soccer body’s second highest of three sponsorship tiers.

As part of the agreement, its logo will flash up on LED boards both on the field and on scorecards during TV broadcasts of the upcoming tournament in Russia. Before Hisense, FIFA had secured just one new top-tier level partner — China’s Dalian Wanda Group — since the last tournament in Brazil. FIFA had just nine companies on its roster for the tournament, excluding Hisense. That compared with 20 by the time the Brazil World Cup kicked off.