FIFA fallout: 'What's wrong with wanting to make money?'

**Luke Wilson** (0:02)
After huge tech sell-offs, Asian stock markets end the week on a high. It's World Business Express from the BBC World Service. I'm Luke Wilson. Ukrainian drones reportedly hit one of Russia's biggest oil refineries, and factory activity unexpectedly falls in China, as the world's second biggest economy is slowing down.
We started the week talking about trading being halted on the South Korean stock market, and some of the world's biggest chipmakers seeing their share prices drop more than 10%. But we're ending the week with the KOSPI index in Seoul closing up 18% and the Nikkei in Tokyo up 4%. Randeep Somal is fund manager at M&G Investments. What's behind this turnaround, Randeep?

**Randeep Somal** (0:51)
Yes, we've seen a lot of volatility this week. Prices have gone very strong. We've seen some investors taking some profits, but we've also seen some leveraged investors getting margin calls and being forced sellers and that's what's created huge amounts of volatility throughout the week. But it's ended on a high. It looks as if some of that leverage has come out the system. So companies such as SK Hynex up 26%, Kyoto in Japan up 17%.
Another area that's helped is Microsoft had very strong results. They added half a trillion to their market cap in a single day. Their cloud business growing at 43%. Similarly with Amazon, they're showing some good numbers in terms of growth.

**Luke Wilson** (1:29)
So are investors no longer worried about the amount of money being spent in this space?

**Randeep Somal** (1:34)
I still think we need to be cautious here. I think the investment community still wants to see what return, long term returns are going to be made for these absolute huge amounts of capital going into the sector.

**Luke Wilson** (1:45)
Randip Somal, Fund Manager at M&G Investments, thank you.
A senior advisor to FIFA president Gianni Infantino has quit the football governing body over plans to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors. Carlos Cordario says they're a bad deal for football. His resignation comes after the Asian Football Confederation joined the sports bodies in Europe and North and Central America in condemning the proposal. It's not total opposition though. Rogers Bayamukama is executive committee member at the Federation of Uganda Football.

**Rogers Bayamukama** (2:16)
What is wrong with making more money and sharing that money with those that need it most? The problems between FIFA and UEFA did not stand with this proposal. This is just a powder cage that maybe has ignited this. Let us discuss the proposal on its merits. Let us not just throw it away because of fears that are not validated yet.

**Luke Wilson** (2:40)
It's estimated that FIFA earned around $2.8 billion in sponsorship revenue alone from the 2026 World Cup. So what do boycotts mean for that money? Ricardo Fort is former head of global sponsorships at Coca-Cola and Visa and has worked on World Cup deals.

**Ricardo Fort** (2:56)
The World Cup is the biggest and the brightest sports sponsorship that exists. Very special and very exclusive for a very limited number of brands. All the sponsors, they are on the phone with FIFA every day because there is a very close relationship and they deal with each other on a daily basis. But there is nothing a sponsor can do to put pressure on FIFA to make decisions about this. Sponsors are not invited to this conversation. They are not part of this, and they may complain privately or publicly. But at the end of the day, this is a football administration issue that FIFA is going to decide along with the federations. And eventually, they will inform the partners what the final decision is.

**Luke Wilson** (3:39)
Ricardo Fort, formerly of Coca-Cola and Visa. FIFA says it's pressing ahead with consultations on the proposal and that the backlash is because of inaccurate media reports.
There's been another Ukrainian drone attack inside Russia with reports that one of the country's biggest oil refineries has been hit. Ukrainian media say a Luke oil facility in the Volgograd region was set on fire. The local governor confirmed fires at an energy complex, but didn't name the site. Russian retailer Wildberries says its logistics hub in Volgograd was also on fire, but there were no initial reports of injuries. Earlier, I spoke to Dr Olga Krasniak, an associate professor at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow.

**Olga Krasniak** (4:18)
Targeting refinery, it had some negative impact, and especially maybe in the last three, four weeks. But now the situation is more stabilized. Well, indeed, some weeks before, people had some shortage of gasoline, so shortage of fuel, but now the situation is stabilized.

**Luke Wilson** (4:36)