Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani celebrates his country winning the right to host the 2022 World Cup (Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters)

COCA-COLA has become the first big World Cup sponsor to attack Fifa over the “disappointing” handling of its botched corruption investigation.

The soft drinks brand, whose financial backing is worth more than £300m to world football’s embattled governing body, broke ranks this weekend to voice its concern. It called for transparency amid the deepening crisis over the organisation’s attempts to whitewash a report on corruption in the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

The chief executive of the German football league, Christian Seifert, called for a Europe-wide boycott of both World Cups. “As a serious organisation, we no longer feel represented by this Fifa,” he said.

Fifa was plunged into crisis 10 days ago when it published a short summary of the report,