German multinational corporation, Adidas is the latest establishment to react to Russia’s invasion of neighbouring country, Ukraine.

The Vladimir Putin-led country has been listed for a number of sanctions since it invaded Ukrain in what the president describes as a ‘special military action’ on Ukraine. The sanctions range from trading relationships to other diplomatic relationships. However, other private establishments have joined in punitive reaction to Russia’s attack.

Recent updates reveal that the German multinational corporation has suspended its 14-year partnership with the Russian Football Federation. This is coming only briefly after the world football body, Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), reacted by suspending the Russian football body.

Adidas has joined other establishments like Visa, Maersk, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, BP, Etsy, Airbnb, Shell, Netflix, Mastercard among others.

The number of organisations taking action against Russia is growing and this is in reaction to the growing war between Russia and Ukraine. According to Forbes Middle East, the International Olympics Committee had on Monday, 28th February, requested that sports organisations around the world ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing in any competition both regionally and globally.

On Friday, 25th February, the Eurovision song contest banned Russia from competing in this year’s competition, disclosing that it was not in support of the country’s move to invade Ukraine. And Formula 1 also cancelled the Russian Grand Prix for 2022.

This is also coming up as the U.S. and other Western allies voted to remove some Russian banks from SWIFT over the weekend, and performed a number of sanctions on Russian financial institutions. President Vladimir Putin has also been directly served sanction with the United State of America freezing his personal assets and those of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and other wealthy Russian oligarchs.

Adidas’s suspension of its partnership with the Russian Football Federation is coming after the two entities had only renewed partnership in 2018. It is also notable that this is coming when preparations for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar are already on the way.

The football associations of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland have also said that they will refuse to play against Russia in any competition.

Cristiano Ronaldo reportedly makes N970.7 million or £1.7 million per post on Instagram after becoming the first person to amass 400 million followers on the social media platform.

The five ballon d’Or winner, who current plied his trader in Manchester, England, has gathered a mass fan base over the course of his career, but since he returned to Manchester United this summer his follower count has shot up by 163 million, outgrowing Keeping Up with the Kardashians star Kylie Jenner.

With that amount of exposure, money follows as it’s naturally one of the best avenues of advertisement, and Ronaldo is making a killing from Instagram alone before any of his other income streams are even considered.

When Ronaldo arrived back at United in September 2021, he had a follower count of 237 million which has almost now doubled in just the space of five months.

Back then, it was estimated that Cristiano Ronaldo was raking in an average of £1,019,100 per Instagram post, but with the growth of his account, betting experts OLBG have revealed how much Ronaldo could be earning from one upload.

Due to Ronaldo’s new influx of followers, the value of each individual post rises to £1,720,000, with his uploads averaging 10 million likes every time his profile gets a new piece of content.

Jake Paul, a Youtuber turned boxer, on Tuesday announced he has purchased a stake in Endeavour Group Holdings, the parent company of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to protest the poor pay structure of fighters, among other things.

Paul, a long-time advocate of better pay and treatment of fighters, had called on Dana White, the President of UFC to increase athletes’ pay and give them good health care policy given the level of risk they take.

Jake Paul, 24, said he partnered Geoffrey Woo in his investment and called on other wealthy individuals, hedge funds, etc to join him in order to force UFC to make changes to its pay structure.

He tweeted, ‘I’ve invested in EDR (UFC) stock with my partner @geoffreywoo 2 focus on UFCs ESG standards relating to fighters’.

‘We believe EDR can drive long-term economic value by increasing UFC fighter pay & providing them healthcare.

‘Reaching out to @EngineNo_1 to partner on this ‘endeavour.”

The move was after Francis Ngannou, a Cameroonian UFC fighter and the heavyweight champion of the world, disclosed that he received $600,000 per fight as a champion despite the level of risk involved while the likes of Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and other boxers get paid $30 million and even more in case of Anthony Joshua.

Ngannou has since refused to extend his contract except certain adjustments are made to allow him the freedom to cross over to boxing.

Jake Paul, a new boxer with just three fights in 2021, earned $40 million, according to Forbes’s latest athletes’ earning report.

‘My partner Jake has lead the way in changing the business of combat sports by not just talking about it, but being about it — fighter pay, healthcare, & championing women’s sport,’ Woo said.

‘And today is our next step in our vision of revolutionizing the industry.

‘UFC has faced a rising chorus of criticism for the exploitation of its athletes — the [love] of [the] biz.

‘The ratio of revenue going to athletes vs. owners & leagues is well below industry standard.

‘This disparity hurts long-term shareholder value & this is not going to magically change.

‘Jake is the archetype of the future, where individual transcends the machine.

‘This is happening across all sectors — media, entertainment, & tech start-ups where dynamic, innovative individuals & creators are bargaining toe-to-toe w the owners, the institutions, and the academy.

‘We believe the best way to accelerate this inevitable revolution is to lead it from within the UFC as co-owners & impact investors.

‘We will use our investment stake to rally fans, athletes, fellow shareholders, and management to do the right thing.’