Emirates Ends FIFA World Cup Sponsorship By Paul Kelso, Sports Correspondent Airline Emirates will not renew its sponsorship of the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cup tournaments, it has emerged. The decision comes after a slew of corruption allegations against football's world governing body, and ends an association that dates back to the 2006 tournament in Germany. In a statement, the airline said contractual issues were behind the decision. It said: "Emirates can confirm that a decision has been made not to renew the sponsorship agreement with FIFA past 2014. This decision was made following an evaluation of FIFA's contract proposal which did not meet Emirates' expectations. However, at the weekend one of its senior executives said the allegations that have dogged FIFA since the award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar were a consideration. FIFA has been dogged by corruption claims since Qatar won the 2022 bid Boutros Boutros, a senior communications director, was quoted by Australian media saying clients had asked them why they were still doing business with FIFA. B&T Media quoted Boutros as saying: "As a sponsor you expect they will come and write to you in the middle of the issue or at the end of it. To them they act as if it's nothing for sponsors. For us, in our history of sponsorship, it is the only event that when it happened our clients started writing to us saying 'why do you support this organisation?' We don't get into politics but we believe the situation with FIFA went beyond an internal problem and became much bigger. FIFA suggested that it had been aware of Emirate's possible withdrawal as long ago as 2012. A spokesman said: "Emirates had already informed FIFA back in June 2012 about the restructuring of its sponsorship concept and FIFA respects this. Due to the ongoing negotiations, we cannot give any further information about future partners in this category at this stage. Emirates is the first sponsor to walk away from FIFA since the most recent round of scandal, but Sony is also considering its position and has until 31 December to decide whether to renew its deal. In the summer it raised concerns over the reputational damage to FIFA of corruption allegations. FIFA raises more than £1bn from its six top-tier partners, who are estimated to pay between £100m and £300m for a World Cup cycle. Despite the bad publicity and doubts over the timing of the Qatar 2022 World Cup it is unlikely to struggle to find a replacement in the airline category. Qatar Airways, already a major investor in football sponsorship through a shirt deal with Barcelona, is among the favourites to fill the gap.