Fifa has secured crucial financial backing from Chinese smartphone maker¹ Vivo in a 400m sponsorship deal, as western groups continue to shun² the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

国际足联(FIFA)获得了来自中国智能手机制造商Vivo的重要财务支持，双方达成一笔4亿欧元的赞助协议。目前西方企业继续回避2018年及2022年世界杯。

According to people briefed on the deal, Vivo will pay about 60m-70m a year to sponsor tournaments run by international football’s governing body, up until the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

听取了相关简报的人士称，Vivo每年将支付6000万到7000万欧元以赞助国际足球管理机构举办的赛事，直至2022年卡塔尔世界杯。

It becomes the third big Chinese company to sponsor the World Cup in the past year, after real estate³ and leisure conglomerate⁴ Wanda and consumer electronics brand Hisense.

Vivo成为继房地产和休闲集团万达(Wanda)以及消费电子品牌海信(Hisense)之后，第三家在过去一年里签约赞助世界杯的中国企业。

Endorsements⁵ from China have provided welcome support for Fifa, which has struggled to secure commercial partners before next year’s World Cup in Russia. It lost several big sponsors, including Sony and Emirates, when their contracts expired at the end of the previous tournament in 2014.

来自中国的赞助为国际足联提供了亟需的支持，该组织正艰难地在明年俄罗斯世界杯之前争取商业合作伙伴。国际足联失去了索尼(Sony)和阿联酋航空(Emirates)等几大赞助商，它们的合约在2014年上一场赛事结束时到期。

Fifa’s secretary-general, Fatma Samoura, told the Financial Times: “It’s not always an easy business [to seek sponsorship] anywhere, but to have China as a partner of Fifa for the third time in less than a year demonstrates that football is a global sport, and that China will be an important client when it comes to football.”

国际足联秘书长法蒂玛?萨穆拉(Fatma Samoura)向英国《金融时报》表示：“（寻求赞助）并不总是一件容易的事，在任何地方都是如此，但在不到一年时间里，中国第三次成为国际足联的合作伙伴，表明了足球是一项全球运动，中国将在足球方面成为一个重要的客户。”

Vivo becomes Fifa’s 12th sponsor for the 2018 World Cup. According to its annual reports, revenues from commercial and marketing⁶ deals related to the 2018 World Cup were $246m in 2015, down from $404m in 2013. The lack of sponsors, alongside legal costs related to corruption⁷ probes, contributed to Fifa making a $369m loss in 2016.

Vivo成为国际足联2018年世界杯的第12家赞助商。国际足联年报显示，与2018年世界杯相关的商业和营销交易带来的收入已从2013年的4.04亿美元下滑至2015年的2.46亿美元。赞助商缺乏，加上与腐败调查相关的法律费用，使得国际足联在2016年亏损3.69亿美元。

Sports industry analysts⁸ have said western groups are avoiding the potential reputational damage of being associated with scandal-hit governing body .

体育行业分析师表示，西方企业正在避免与这家受丑闻打击的管理机构扯在一起，以免遭受声誉损害。

“To a certain extent, China can step back from Fifa and say what happened over the last 20 or 30 years is nothing to do with us, we are associated with the new Fifa,” said Simon Chadwick, a professor of sports enterprise at Salford Business School, who has studied Chinese football. “In those terms, the reputational damage is far less for China.”

“在某种程度上，中国可以撇清其与国际足联的关系，表示过去20年或30年所发生之事与我们无关，我们与之合作的是新的国际足联，”英国索尔福德商学院(Salford Business School)体育事业教授、曾经研究中国足球的西蒙?查德威克(Simon Chadwick)表示，“利用那些说辞，中国的声誉损害会小得多。”