Cole Palmer’s omission from England’s World Cup squad shocked football fans and, for Coca-Cola, it was an unwelcome surprise. Just days before the announcement, Palmer had been unveiled as the brand’s Football Brand Ambassador in a multi-year partnership spanning Coca-Cola and Powerade activations across the Premier League and FIFA World Cup 2026. With fellow stars Phil Foden and Trent Alexander-Arnold also left home this summer, their associated brands will see reach and relevance diminish. 

Ambassador deals are naturally complex. Contracts take months to negotiate, production must be scheduled, , and creative developed and shot long before Thomas Tuchel names his final 26. Given football’s unpredictability, it’s easy to see how this happens. So, can brands defend against this? And what do you do if you find yourself a player down in your campaign? 

The honest answer is that risk is inherently part of any ambassadorial relationship – a player can break their leg at any time or be part of an unforeseen controversy. However, there is a difference between mitigating risk and ignoring it, and that starts with having experts in the room. For direct deals with individual players, Sports specialist agencies can undergo a rigorous process to inform talent recommendations that study social follower growth, content engagement rates, personality traits, as well as on-pitch performance. There’s no way to guarantee a player will make up the squad, but consulting experts who are embedded in the squad can improve your chances. 

It’s also worth noting that brands do not always control which players feature in their campaigns. For partners of national teams, brands will be provided with 3-5 players (depending on the nation’s rules) to shoot on commercial days in the months prior to tournaments and given 24 hours’ notice of that selection. Typically, this will include one high-profile name, one mid-tier player, and one emerging talent, to ensure the best talent is distributed evenly across partners. ‘Wishlists’ will of course be shared – and rights holders do their best to keep everyone happy – but there will inevitably be brands left cursing their luck as squad announcements are made across the world.   

So, what do you do when a player featured in your campaign misses the squad? First, remember that fans don’t have the critical eye of many brand managers, and players of Palmer’s stature do not become irrelevant overnight. Their appeal, visibility and commercial value mean there is no reason good content won’t still perform –   poor sporting fortune usually just calls for creative adjustment, not a standstill. 

Adjusting plans is even easier if flexibility is built-in from the start. Brands that shoot content across multiple players or invest in shorter-form social alongside a hero campaign have more room to maneuver when selection goes against them. A bank of individual content simply gives you more options than a single 30-second ad. And more options are emerging to pivot in record time – with AI-assisted production brands can already amend campaigns at greater speed. By the 2030 World Cup, some campaigns are likely to be created digitally after the squad announcement and remove selection risk altogether. The Palmer situation is a reminder that sports marketing should be treated as a specialism, not an add-on to broader strategy. It requires people who understand the sport, can read form, anticipate selection, and advise accordingly. That is how brands win in the sports space and avoid their campaigns wasting away on the bench.