Top female footballers urge Fifa to end deal with Saudi 'nightmare sponsor'

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/oct/21/top-female-footballers-urge-fifa-end-deal-saudi-nightmare-sponsor-aramco-oil-human-rights

Top female footballers urge Fifa to end deal with Saudi ‘nightmare sponsor’

Letter to governing body accuses Saudis of using sports to ‘distract from the regime’s brutal human rights reputation’

Tom Levitt
Mon 21 Oct 2024 08.18 EDT

More than 100 professional female footballers have signed a letter calling on Fifa to end its sponsorship deal with the state-owned Saudi Arabian oil company, Aramco, accusing Saudi authorities of “brutal human rights violations”.

A four-year deal signed in April will see Aramco, which is 98.5% state-owned, sponsor major tournaments including the men’s World Cup in 2026 and the Women’s World Cup in 2027.

But campaigners have accused Saudi Arabia of “sportswashing” – using its investment in sport to cover up its poor human rights record.

The regime has recently handed down long prison sentences to a number of women, often in secret trials, after they used social media to advocate for more rights and freedoms for women.

Earlier this year, Manahel al-Otaibi, 30, was sentenced to 11 years in prison after using social media to call for an end to rules dictating that women needed the permission of a male relative to marry or travel. A Leeds University student, Salma al-Shehab, received a 34-year prison term for tweeting in support of women’s rights.

In the letter published today, the women said girls who would be the players of the future deserved much better from the sport’s governing body than its “allyship with this nightmare sponsor”.

… more …