FIFA's congress begins in Brazil later on Tuesday, with the organisation's President again having to defend the decision to award the Twenty-twenty-two World Cup to Qatar.

Allegations of corruption have prompted FIFA to begin an inquiry, and the scandal over the voting for that tournament has the potential to overshadow the staging of this one. But Sepp Blatter says the accusations are motivated by racism.

He told delgates ahead of the conference "There is a sort of storm against FIFA, relating to the Qatar World Cup. Sadly there's a great deal of discrimination and racism," Blatter stated, adding that "it really makes him sad." But oil company BP, and the maker of Budweiser Beer, have joined the ranks of World Cup sponsors pressing the sport's leaders to tackle corruption allegations.

The calls, which follow similar statements by Adidas, Coca-Cola, Visa, and Sony came on the same day former U.S. prosecutor Michael Garcia was due to finish an investigation on FIFA's behalf, into the decisions to hand the Cup to Russia in twenty-eighteen, and Qatar in twenty twenty-two.

Garcia will submit his report to FIFA in around six weeks time roughly a week after the World Cup Final in Rio de Janeiro. If he finds corruption, some of the sport's officials believe Qatar could be stripped of the 2022 Cup, but that country and Russia both deny any wrongdoing.

Sponsors who pay hundreds of millions of dollars for the "halo effect" of associating their brand with the World Cup, however, have made a rare break with protocol, by publicly demanding that FIFA to get to the bottom of the claims.

"The attitude towards corporate governance has changed a lot in the last 20 years, and just about every major company will have extremely strong rules about compliance and governance, so they will be worried about damage to their brand, if it's not sorted out quickly." David Haigh, Brand Finance CEO said.

"People like Coca-Cola, Adidas, Emirates, Hyundai, do not put large amounts of money into the World Cup, the World Cup generally, without believing they're going to get a big return on their investment."

"First scope of any investigation, obviously, that really depends on facts and circumstances. So no 'bright line', no rule, no limitations, certainly on any specific investigations including no bright line in terms of past and future. I think if there's conduct in the past that warrants investigation, I will do that. Obviously prospectively same thing." Michael Garcia, FIFA Chief Investigator said.

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