Wi-fi Competition has been hit by a second main sponsorship blow, with drinks large Diageo confirming it has withdrawn assist simply hours after Pepsi pulled its long-running partnership in response to Kanye West’s headline reserving.
Diageo — the corporate behind manufacturers together with Johnnie Walker and Captain Morgan — informed ITV Information it had raised considerations instantly with organisers.
A spokesperson mentioned: “We have now knowledgeable the organisers of our considerations and because it stands, Diageo won’t sponsor the 2026 Wi-fi Competition.”
The announcement adopted Pepsi’s resolution to take away its title from the occasion, ending a branding relationship that has been in place since 2015. In an announcement to Billboard, a spokesperson mentioned: “Pepsi has determined to withdraw its sponsorship of Wi-fi Competition.”
The dual exits got here shortly after British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer publicly criticised the pageant’s resolution to e book Kanye — who is ready to headline all three nights from July 10–12 — citing the rapper’s previous antisemitic remarks.
Starmer mentioned: “It’s deeply regarding that Kanye West has been booked to carry out at Wi-fi regardless of his earlier antisemitic remarks and celebration of Nazism. Antisemitism in any type is abhorrent and should be confronted clearly and firmly wherever it seems.”
Kanye’s look has sparked vital backlash from neighborhood teams, together with the UK’s Jewish Management Council, which described the reserving as “deeply irresponsible.”
Chatting with Billboard, the organisation mentioned: “The UK Jewish neighborhood is going through document ranges of antisemitism, together with a terrorist assault in Manchester, the assault on ambulances in Golders Inexperienced and foiled plots which might have killed many extra.”
The controversy comes simply months after Kanye issued a prolonged public apology within the Wall Road Journal, addressing each the Jewish and Black communities and reflecting on a interval of extreme psychological well being disaster.
Within the assertion, he wrote: “I misplaced contact with actuality. Issues acquired worse the longer I ignored the issue. I mentioned and did issues I deeply remorse… In that fractured state, I gravitated towards probably the most harmful image I may discover, the swastika… I remorse and am deeply mortified by my actions in that state, and am dedicated to accountability, remedy, and significant change.”
Kanye, who launched his newest album Bully on March 28, mentioned he’s specializing in “constructive, significant artwork” and added: “I’m not asking for sympathy, or a free go… I write in the present day merely to ask in your persistence and understanding as I discover my approach dwelling.”
With two main sponsors now gone and public criticism persevering with, Wi-fi Competition faces mounting stress simply months earlier than the gates open.
