British Olympic Association tells sponsors not to congratulate Olympic athletes

THE Olympic Games are supposed to be a time for celebration and recognising the achievements of heroes. This rule won’t allow it.

The Olympics’ most ridiculous rule

THE Olympic Games are supposed to be a time for celebration and recognising the achievements of heroes.

This rule won’t allow it.

Athletes have been warned to keep their distance from non-sanctioned corporate partners at the Rio Olympics or face being kicked out of the Games.

That’s the edict from the British Olympic Association (BOA), which has issued a series of rules to British athletes forbidding all Olympians from endorsing products or companies at the expense of the BOA’s own corporate partners, The London Times reported.

The new rules also outlaw corporate sponsors (not partnered with the BOA) from congratulating athletes or even wishing them good luck in a public forum during the Rio Games, beginning August 5.

All non-sanctioned sponsors will also be prohibit from re-posting any messages from athletes on social media sites including Twitter and Facebook — as well as any post from Team Great Britain social media accounts.

British athletes will have to consent to the list of new rules before they can book their ticket to Brazil.

The rules are designed to combat ambush marketing during the Olympics from organisations that could corrupt the value of sponsorship opportunities with Team GB and the BOA.

“Your personal sponsors — or any other commercial organisations — are not allowed to use your image in advertising, or any promotion on social media, during the Games period unless this has been agreed with the BOA,” the list of rules obtained by The Times states.

So much for the nobility of athletic pursuit.

“Deemed consent will not permit advertisers to create an association with the Games, Team GB and/or the Olympic movement; re-tweet any Team GB tweets at any time, or retweet athletes’ posts (which relate to the Games) during the Games period; and/or reference athletes’ participation in the Olympic Games, including by way of congratulatory messaging during the Games period.”

Athletes have also been warned they are not to cover any corporate logo displayed on official Team GB uniforms.

“You agree that you will not cover the Adidas logo, and that you will not display any unauthorised commercial logo to yourself or your clothing or equipment,” the rules state.

The IOC was forced to relax its rules against personal sponsorship deals in order to find middle ground between the interests of athletes and sponsors with official Olympic ties.

It is a similar case in the United States where the U.S. Olympic Committee chief marketing officer Lisa Baird says there is now “almost no reason to ambush” as a result of the IOC’s new stance on personal sponsorships.

“We had some really tough times when I joined, and we were quite vocal in what I feel about intentional ambush marketing,” Baird told The Wall Street Journal.

“It’s not intended to hurt the athletes, but it does. It’s intended to borrow intellectual property. And we were really vocal about how that actually hurts the future athletes. We’re the ones raising the resources to give to athletes. I think by being vocal it probably educated people.

“Athletes feel that the games are their most valuable period to tell their story. That was where a lot of the dissatisfaction was voiced. I endorse and want to see athletes getting more endorsements, because they’re great athletes.

“That’s good for everybody. But if it’s intentionally being clever about using our intellectual property to hold this other sponsor up as an Olympic sponsor and there’s confusion in the marketplace, that hurts America’s teams’ prospects, period.”