AT last. A major sponsor has pulled the plug at the top level of a world sport.

The decision of Adidas to cut short their deal with the IAAF, the governing body of athletics, should set the alarm bells ringing at other global organisations, namely FIFA.

We’re always told that it will take the companies who provide the financial backing to sports to withdraw that patronage before those in charge will take any notice of misgivings.

As long as the money keeps flowing in, the status quo is likely to remain. But not now.

Adidas, the German sportswear giant, has taken a stand.

They do not want their brand associated with the corruption scandal currently engulfing athletics.

Already this month, three senior officials have been given lifetime bans for breaches of anti-doping rules. Athletics has now been hit where it hurts — in the pocket.

Depending on your source, the ending of the sponsorship agreement four years early will cost the sport anywhere between £20million and £30m.

More worrying for IAAF president Lord Sebastian Coe is that this could be the catalyst to prompt other major backers to follow Adidas’ lead and walk away too.

But this is still only a job half-done from Adidas as far as I’m concerned. They also just happen to be one of FIFA’s most loyal and high-profile sponsors.

If the firm are really serious about standing up to corruption and only being associated with integrity over making money, they should sever their connections with world football’s governing body as well.

Imagine the message that would send out. There is no longer a suggestion that FIFA is rotten to the core, it’s a reality after president Sepp Blatter was banned for eight years, along with UEFA chief Michel Platini, after being found guilty of a conflict of interest and dereliction of duty.

Several senior officials have also been arrested on corruption charges. Football, like athletics, needs to clean up its act.

Until that happens, Adidas, and others like them, cannot sit idly by.

They have lost patience with athletics, but they should show zero tolerance to all.