November 29 – Female fans of the women’s game across the world oppose FIFA’s current deal with Saudi Aramco based on environmental, women’s rights, and LGBTQ+ rights grounds, a poll by the New Weather Institute has found.
The poll found that 72% of fans believed that “FIFA should end its partnership with Saudi Aramco and find alternative sponsors whose values align with the values and goals of Women’s Football, even if it means that there is less sponsorship money for the next four years” and more than 60% of fans believe Saudi Aramco “should not be allowed to sponsor women’s football, because of the damage they do to the environment and climate.”
Andrew Simms, co-director of the New Weather Institute, said: “Female football fans can see what FIFA can’t or won’t. Letting one of the world’s biggest polluters that represent a harshly discriminatory regime sponsor a global game which claims commitments to climate action and inclusion, is like letting a giant asteroid hurtling towards Earth sponsor the future of life. With the precedent of kicking tobacco sponsorship out of sport FIFA needs to find sponsors in line with football’s professed values.”
In October, more than a hundred women’s players wrote to FIFA to protest the sponsorship from Aramco and demand the world federation end the deal with the Saudi oil company. They called the sponsorship “a middle finger to women’s football”.
The poll had 1,200 respondents in each of Australia, Brazil, Spain, United States and the United Kingdom, said the New Weather Institute.
Fans from the Action FC women’s football fans community said: “Aramco is not a women’s rights ally. It’s not an LGBTQ+ ally. It is not a climate ally. All things that most women’s football fans stand for. FIFA quite possibly chose the worst sponsor for women’s football. And yet it will proudly announce it like there is nothing wrong.”
“This poll confirms what FIFA doesn’t want to see. That women’s football fans are different and have always had strong core values we want to defend. It’s not just about football, it’s also how it is played and enjoyed. Morals over money. There are so many options for sponsors, why pick the worst possible choice?”
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