Insanity: FIFA Taped Over The Gillette Logo On 60,000 Seats At Gillette Stadium. Yes, Really.

As a casual soccer fan at best, I'm learning a lot about the world's most popular sport with the World Cup here in the United States this month. 

I've learned that these Scottish fans, the Tartan Army, are fucking awesome. 

I've learned that in the World Cup, you can use replay (I guess it's called VAR in soccer?) to reverse a call and hand out yellow cards for flopping. 

Hey Adam Silver - take note. 

And I'm learning just how hardcore FIFA is about its "clean stadium" policy. 

At Gillette Stadium, they put a little piece of blue tape on EVERY seat with the word "Gillette" on it to cover up the company name. 

That's like 60k seats. 

Exactly, Frank. It is funny. Until you realize they made people do this as part of their job. 

You have to cut the little piece of tape. 

Then you have to put it over Gillette. 

And then repeat. Over and over and over. A mere 60 thousand times. 

All thanks to this Clean Stadium Policy FIFA has in place fo these games.  

FIFA’s "clean stadium" policy requires that host venues for the World Cup remove all non-approved corporate branding, sponsored naming rights, and local team logos. The policy exists to "protect the exclusivity and global exposure of official tournament sponsors." 

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Like here - they covered up the big Gillette Stadium sign over the Patriots Super Bowl banners. Imagine they tried to cover the banners? 

This picture was somewhere on the media level at Gillette. Well, it was, anyway. How was this ever going to get on TV? 

I guess I sort of get covering the BIG Gillette Stadium sign. But condiment bottles seem rather silly. 

And ALL the seats at Gillette Stadium (well, Boston Stadium according to FIFA)? 

INSANE 

Going out of your way to have people cut 60k pieces of tape for every seat is fucking crazy - especially when you consider the unlikely scenario where a TV camera would zoom in on a seat back during a game. Or a match. Whatever. You can argue that FIFA did more to promote Gillette by taping over the seats than they would have by leaving them alone. 

By the way, it's not just putting all this tape on - people are going to have to go take all this tape off when the World Cup moves in. That's going to be an even BIGGER pain in the ass.

Not a soccer guy, but I'm enjoying the World Cup. And I'm rooting my American ass off for Team USA. But I can't root for this nonsense of tape on 60k seats.