Petty FIFA goes to extraordinary lengths to hide non-World Cup sponsors on EVERY seat at 64,146-capacity 'Boston Stadium'

FIFA’s rules regarding stadium sponsorship have extended to extreme levels as one fan discovered while attending a match in Massachusetts on Tuesday.

The sport’s governing body has a strict policy for venues to strip all evidence of sponsorship and alter the names of stadiums.

For this tournament, Gillette Stadium in Foxborough has been re-named to Boston Stadium – despite being located roughly 30 miles south of the city it is now named after.

All signs bearing the name have either been covered or removed. This, apparently, includes the logo for the stadium that is seen on every single seat.

Gillette Stadium branding is used on the seat numbers for each of the capacity 64,146 chairs throughout the building.

So, to ensure compliance with FIFA policy, small pieces of blue tape were used to cover up the logo on each and every seat.

Small pieces of blue tape were placed on seat numbers to cover the Gillette Stadium logo

Fans were up in arms over the policy, branding FIFA as a petty organization

A photo of this went viral on social media, with the caption reading, ‘Someone had to put 64,146 very small pieces of blue tape over every single Gillette logo on every. single. seat. FIFA doesn’t mess around.’

Fans were up in arms over this policy – with many shocked over FIFA’s brazen pettiness in upholding their standards. Others pointed out the painstaking effort which will eventually be required to remove the tape afterwards.

‘Taking that off is gonna be so much more annoying,’ wrote one user on X.

Another user concurred, saying, ‘Rather be the guy putting it on then [sic] the one required to take it off.’

Others turned to FIFA: ‘If we could turn FIFA’s incredible pettiness into an energy source it would rival nuclear power for its reliability.’

One comment read, ‘The loser energy in all of this ‘non-FIFA partner’ censorship is off the charts.’

But it appears that not every stadium has adopted such extreme measures.

The Athletic’s Adam Crafton noted that New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, ‘did not do this for their cup holders. Probably on the basis on sanity. Or the absurd cost of doing so in a unionized venue.’