More than 100 female professional footballers from 24 countries have called on the sport\u2019s governing body FIFA to end its sponsorship deal with Saudi oil giant Aramco, citing human rights issues and treatment of the LGBTQ+ community as well as environmental concerns.<\/p>\n
In an open letter to FIFA president Gianni Infantino, the players said the \u201cAramco sponsorship is a middle finger to women\u2019s football\u201d.<\/p>\n
FIFA brought Aramco, 98.5 percent-owned by the Saudi state, on board as a major sponsor earlier this year in a deal that runs through to 2027, a period during which there will be the men\u2019s and women\u2019s World Cups \u2014 in 2026 and a year later.<\/p>\n
The oil giant\u2019s sponsorship, the female footballers argued in their letter, was \u201cmuch worse than an own goal for football\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cFIFA might as well pour oil on the pitch and set it alight. Our job as professional players has been a dream for us and is a dream for the girls who will be the players of the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe deserve so much better from our governing body than its allyship with this nightmare sponsor.\u201d<\/p>\n
The signatories of the letter included the likes of Manchester City\u2019s Dutch international Vivianne Miedema, Inter Milan\u2019s Sofie Junge Pedersen, former US captain Becky Sauerbrunn, as well as Jessie Fleming, Elena Linari and Doris Bacic, respectively skippers of Canada, Italy and Croatia.<\/p>\n
\u201cSaudi authorities have been spending billions in sports sponsorship to try to distract from the regime\u2019s brutal human rights reputation, but its treatment of women speaks for itself,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia has invested heavily in sport in recent years, with the Gulf State\u2019s Pro League snatching big names from the major European leagues thanks to the backing of the country\u2019s sovereign wealth fund.<\/p>\n
However, the kingdom has been accused of using major events to \u201csports wash\u201d its human rights record.<\/p>\n
The women footballers\u2019 letter concluded: \u201cWe urge FIFA to reconsider this partnership and replace Saudi Aramco with alternative sponsors whose values align with gender equality, human rights and the safe future of our planet.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also propose the establishment of a review committee with player representation, to evaluate the ethical implications of future sponsorship deals and ensure they align with our sport\u2019s values and goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
A FIFA spokesperson told AFP, however, that the body \u201cvalues its partnership with Aramco and its many others commercial and rights partners\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cFIFA is an inclusive organisation with many commercial partners also supporting other organisations in football and other sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cSponsorship revenues generated by FIFA are reinvested back into the game at all levels and investment in women\u2019s football continues to increase, including for the historic FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup 2023 and its groundbreaking new distribution model.\u201d<\/p>\n
The spokesman added: \u201cAs well as the increased support for teams at the tournament last year, FIFA\u2019s updated Women\u2019s Football Strategy for 2023-2027 further highlights how commercial revenues are reinvested back into the development of the women\u2019s game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The post Women footballers call on FIFA to drop Saudi Aramco as sponsor<\/a> first appeared on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n The post Women footballers call on FIFA to drop Saudi Aramco as sponsor<\/a> appeared first on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" More than 100 female professional footballers from 24 countries have called on the sport\u2019s governing body FIFA to end its sponsorship deal with Saudi oil giant Aramco, citing human rights issues and treatment of the LGBTQ+ community as well as environmental concerns. In an open letter to FIFA president Gianni Infantino, the players said the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99969\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}