A deeply unpopular choice from FIFA to bring Visit Saudi aboard as a 2023 World Cup sponsor is off.
At the FIFA Congress in Rwanda, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said Thursday that the premier women’s soccer tournament on the planet would not be sponsored by the tourism board of a country that has been roundly criticized for laws restricting women’s freedom.
Among other cricitism, the rumored interest between FIFA and Visit Saudi was condemned by the federations of both host countries, and referred to as “bizarre” by U.S. women’s national team star Alex Morgan.
Infantino sought to downplay the entire episode, telling the FIFA Congress that while “there were discussions with Visit Saudi,” no contracts ever materialized. “It was a storm in a tea cup.”
Infantino tries to side-step issue
The FIFA president then pivoted to an unrelated point about how Australia and Saudi Arabia engage in trade, which is of course not the issue at hand.
“When it comes to Australia, they have trade with Saudi Arabia, $1.5 billion per year. This doesn’t seem to be a problem,” said Infantino. “FIFA is an organization made up of 211 countries. There is nothing wrong with taking sponsorships from Saudi Arabia, China, United States of America, Brazil, or India.”
Infantino kept digging, eventually concluding that everyone should just be happy and not yell at him or FIFA.
“This year we will have the Women’s World Cup. This should be a celebration of women, it has to be,” said Infantino. “And yet there’s this negativity which always comes out. Why is that? Why can we not try a little bit to focus on the positive?”
A solid enough answer to these rhetorical questions can be found from the tournament’s hosts. Football New Zealand released a statement applauding the choice to avoid a sponsorship backed by the government of a country whose “Personal Status Law” — which effectively enshrined a male guardianship system for women as Saudi law — was recently decried by Amnesty International.
“New Zealand Football welcome the confirmation from FIFA that Visit Saudi will not be sponsoring the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023,” read the NZF statement. “We believe it is critical for all commercial partnerships to align with the vision and values of the tournaments they are involved in.”
Football Australia chief executive James Johnson struck a similar chord in a statement published by Reuters.
“We welcome clarification from FIFA regarding Visit Saudi,” said Johnson. “Equality, diversity and inclusion are really deep commitments for Football Australia and we’ll continue to work hard with FIFA to ensure the Women’s World Cup is shaped in this light.”
[lawrence-related id=15758,13859,13505]