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From his two decades with DENTSU Sports to now 17 years with FIFA, Hide Arai has been at the heart of the Japanese presence in sports marketing globally for decades.\xa0 Great stories and insights into the Japanese Advertising Giant\u2019s influence in global sports for the last 40 years, driven by the emergence of Japanese super brands.\xa0 And a short discussion about FIFA\u2019s state of play, with several sensitive topics appropriately edited. \xa0\xa0\n\xa0\nKey Highlights\nHow it all started in the mid 80s, producing Japanese TV commercials at Dentsu Advertising\nDentsu\u2019s first foray into sports marketing started in 1982 at the FIFA World Cup in Spain and 1984 LA Olympics \u2013 two Japanese Dentsu executives (Hartori & Takahashi) started to build a close bond with Horst Dassler, the powerful German businessman who controlled adidas and had launched ISL Marketing.\nCoinciding with the growth of Japanese brands globally.\xa0 Dentsu taking on calculated risk to acquire the rights to certain packages and then selling it to one of it\u2019s 3,000 clients.\nDentsu\u2019s investment in ISL Marketing (49%) in 1984 \xa0and playing a significant role for decades\nISL Marketing taking the FIFA rights away from Coca-Cola which were managed by West Nally at that time.\xa0 Host Dassler cutting a deal with FIFA\u2019s President Joao Havelange\nFirst role at Dentsu Sports Division in 1990,\xa0 sponsorship sales and rights activations\nWorld Championship of Track and Field in 1993, Stuttgart, Germany \u2013 we were both there.\xa0 Mike Powell story and Panasonic package size\n1992, Barcelona Olympics \u2013 strong Japanese sponsor presence\nFuji & Kodak rivalry (FIFA vs IOC sponsorships) , Sony (Playstation, FIFA ) and Panasonic (Olympic TOP program) stories\nHis ISL Marketing years as \u201cDentsu Rep\u201d (or Spy as his colleagues jokingly called it)\u201d and some Papa Diack stories\nHis perspective on how the ISL powerhouse crumbled \u2013 loss of key management, wrong investments and missed IPO (Heinz Schurtenberger)\nLoss of CEO may put on brakes at ISL (sportsbusinessjournal.com)\n\nBack into Dentsu for the World Cup 1998 in France and then back to Japan to set up a new Media Rights trading division\nBuying FIFA World Cup, Italian League (Canal+), Bundesliga (UFA Sports) buying rights for Japan territory\nGrowth of MLB rights in Japan due to Japanese players playing in the League since the 90s (NHK largest MLB broadcaster in the world)\nDentsu\u2019s stake in World Sports Group (AFC Marketing agency for two decades) (Seamus O\u2019Brien & Jack Sakazaki, JSM)\nFIFA role from 2004 till now \u2013 Deputy Director, Business Development, sales & distribution of Media rights (partnering again with Jerome Valcke)\nDifference between Agency life and life at a Federation. Different type of stakeholders and their needs\nISL and Kirch Media Bankruptcies endangering FIFA \u2013 on the back FIFA Marketing AG was created, FIFA taking commercial rights in-house, massive growth of fees (driven by Jerome)\nMastercard vs VISA drama\nGrowth of FIFA from 30-40 staff in the 90s to now 1,000 staff globally, all brought in-house, from ticketing, security to other areas\n\xa0\nAbout Hide Arai\nAn avid baseball fan has turned into a sports business marketeer, Hide Arai\u2019s association with the sports business has started in the early 80s when he joined Dentsu, the advertising giant in Japan and was subsequently assigned to ISL Worldwide in Switzerland during early 90s.\xa0 As VP at ISL, his activities had entailed sponsorship sales to Japanese global brands including Canon, Fujifilm, Panasonic and Toyota, as well as sponsors activations surrounding FIFA World Cup, Olympic Games, and IAAF (now World Athletics) World Athletic Championships.\xa0\nBack at Dentsu\u2019s Sports Division from the late 90s to early 2000s, Hide Arai had driven scores of major sports rights deals as GM of the Division, including FIFA World Cups 2002-2006, Major League Baseball, English Premier League, Serie A, The Open (Golf).\xa0\xa0\nAfter 22 years of tenure at Dentsu, he switched his career and geographical base to a sport