Toyota ends sponsorship with ‘political’ Olympic Games – Sports

Japanese car giant Toyota will end sponsorship of the Olympic Games at the highest level, its chairman said, citing the sporting showpiece’s “increasingly political” influence that puts athletes on the back burner.

Toyota signed a ten-year sponsorship deal with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2015.

But now, with the Paris Games over, the automaker has decided to terminate the contract, chairman Akio Toyoda said during a podcast episode uploaded to the company’s own YouTube channel on Thursday.

“I have wondered for some time whether the event really puts athletes first,” Toyoda said.

“It is also becoming more and more political.”

The withdrawal means that the Olympic logos currently worn on Toyota products will be phased out and the vehicles will no longer be supplied to assist with the event, the chairman said.

Public broadcasting NHK said the company is also terminating its sponsorship deal for the Paralympic Games.

“To me, the Olympics should simply be about watching athletes from all walks of life, with all kinds of challenges, achieve the impossible,” Toyoda told U.S. auto dealers.

Toyota follows another Japanese company Panasonic in ending their association with the Olympic Games.

Panasonic announced their withdrawal earlier this month citing “management considerations”.

The electronics giant said it has agreed with the IOC not to renew their sponsorship deal when the current contract expires in December.

Panasonic became an ‘Official Global Partner of the Olympic Games’ in 1987 and extended its sponsorship to the Paralympic Games from 2014.

But it decided to let the contract expire “as the Group continually considers how sponsorship should evolve with wider management considerations”.

“As a result of this review, and after extensive consultations with the IOC, the parties agreed to refrain from extending the Olympic and Paralympic Partnership Agreement,” Panasonic said, without giving details.