“Nine Fifa officials and four executives of sports management companies were arrested on suspicion of receiving bribes totalling $100m, according to the US Department of Justice.” - reports The Guardian.

Those four executives of sports management companies are (via The Washington Post)

Alejandro Burzaco, a sports marketing executive based in Argentina.

Aaron Davidson, president of Traffic Sports USA.

Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, principals of Full Play Group, a sports marketing business based in Argentina.

These companies - that have already pleaded guilty and are likely to be cooperating - may reveal dirty secrets of the sports marketing practices as they may not merely be the only players involved. Allegedly they were wiring money for big corporations, sponsors, partners.

Although some of the bigger FIFA partner brands have already warned the international organization several times that they’re worried about the corruption allegations around FIFA’s operations, now we might actually learn why they were so worried in the first place. Even if their involvement in the kickbacks and bribes cannot be proved, marketing executives at these major global corporations need to re-asses the risks that they take by supporting highly corrupt organizations in order to get visibility around the most popular sport in the world.