EA had no problem putting Messi on their cover when he was dealing with tax fraud case but express "deep concern" when the star man is facing allegations for a crime that no one is certain he did it?
It isn't surprising. And quite frankly it makes a lot of sense. Most people wouldn't care about buying the jersey of someone who didn't pay taxes. It's white collar crime - without a clear cut victim. A rape? assault? murder? Those are crimes that come with long prison sentences, have a clear victim, and are concepts that consumers will understand.
Tax Fraud is something that generally the public don't care about because it doesn't have an identifiable victim. Yes, it affects the citizens of a country, but most people aren't well versed enough in finance to really care. Also many think of taxes as unfair - ie: nobody likes to pay taxes. Rape is something that is a serious crime with a clear, identifiable victim. In North America in particular its very topical, and has become more of a theme over the last few years. I don't know whether Ronaldo did it, but the reactions of sponsors is logical. I hope he didn't do it, and he clears his name, but the loss of sponsorship is something that is very possible. Kobe, Tiger Woods all lost sponsorships for their issues.
"We are Nike and we support rape"
"We are Nike and we support tax fraud"
which resonates more?