A gaggle of over 100 skilled girls’s footballers on Monday despatched an open letter to FIFA urging the world governing physique to finish its partnership with oil and gasoline conglomerate Saudi Aramco.
In April, FIFA signed a four-year deal which can see Aramco turn into a worldwide companion, together with in main tournaments such because the 2026 World Cup and the Ladies’s World Cup the next yr.
Saudi Arabia has invested closely in sports activities like soccer, Components One and golf in the previous few years whereas critics, together with girls’s rights teams and members of the LGBTQ group, accuse the dominion of utilizing its Public Funding Fund (PIF) to “sportswash” its human rights file.
The nation denies accusations of human rights abuses and, arguing it protects its nationwide safety by its legal guidelines.
Manchester Metropolis striker Vivianne Miedema, Canada captain Jessie Fleming and ex-United States captain Becky Sauerbrunn had been among the many gamers to signal the letter.
“We urge FIFA to rethink this partnership and change Saudi Aramco with different sponsors whose values align with gender equality, human rights and the secure way forward for our planet,” the gamers stated within the letter.
In addition they proposed establishing a evaluate committee with participant illustration to guage the moral implications of future sponsorship offers.
FIFA pointed to the influence of sponsorship revenues on funding within the girls’s recreation.
“FIFA values its partnership with Aramco and its many others business and rights companions,” a spokesperson for FIFA stated.
“FIFA is an inclusive organisation with many business companions additionally supporting different organisations in soccer and different sports activities.
“Sponsorship revenues generated by FIFA are reinvested again into the sport in any respect ranges and funding in girls’s soccer continues to extend, together with for the historic FIFA 2023 Ladies’s World Cup and its groundbreaking new distribution mannequin.”
A consultant for Aramco stated they would offer a response to the letter on the earliest alternative.
