Last week, GM announced the termination of its Global Marketing Chief Joel Ewanick. Details had been limited at the time but GM spokesman Greg Martin left a vague explanation: "I can tell you that he failed to meet the expectations the company has for its employees."
Now, Bloomberg reports that Ewanick's ousting is caused by a questionable decision to form a $559 million soccer deal with the UK's Manchester United football club. According to a whistleblower within GM, Ewanick failed to report as much as one-third of the deal's cost.
Elaborating on the matter, the whistleblower allegedly reported that Ewanick had spread the costs of the new Chevrolet sponsorship agreement with Manchester among several different marketing budgets to circumvent GM's spending limits.
When the elaborate scheme unraveled, Ewanick denied the action. So far, investigations show no evidence that Ewanick has made any unauthorized personal financial gains from the deal.
Since Ewanick's departure from GM, the automaker has since renegotiated with the Manchester team to work with a more realistic monetary sum. $18.6 million will be raised this year before GM will post a $70 million commitment by the 2014 season.
The execs at GM are not the only ones unhappy with Ewanick's deal with the Manchester soccer team. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, soccer fans comprising the Manchester United Supporters Trust (MUST) are boycotting the team owners and its sponsors as well after it was revealed that future plans stand to turn Manchester United into a publicly traded entity and that as much as $333 million will be raised to launch a Manchester United IPO.
Although matters of the boycott aren't focused on GM in particular, sideffects of the Manchester United controversy will certainly strike a blow to GM's marketing efforts.
