Cronulla Sharks sponsors are getting jumpy as the crisis surrounding the NRL club deepens. Up to 14 Sharks players are reported to be under investigation by the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) as it attempts to combat alleged doping across codes.
Whitegoods firm Hisense Australia told AdNews it was worried about its sponsorship arrangement with the club.
Head of marketing, Andre Iannuzzi, said that it was difficult to make a decision without the full facts. However, the subsidiary of Chinese state-owned Hisense Group, was “nervous as a brand” and was “watching increasingly tentatively as the situation unfolds,” Iannuzzi added.
“At the moment we want to [wait and] see. There is a limited amount of information coming from the club, so we can't go into detail.”
He said without being armed with the facts of the Australian Crime Commission's investigation, there were “a lot of insinuations” about the club and players. He urged the club and the watchdog to publish details.
"As fans and sponsors, we don”t like to see the game hurting. We want to see the report come out with details."
Major sponsors have not walked away from any of the codes being investigated by the ACC. However, as suggested by senior media buyers when the story broke last month, there could be "significant consequences" for individual players and clubs found to have breached code rules.
Cronulla Sharks was not able to comment on the situation at the time of writing.
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