Players ask FIFA to cancel Aramco contract

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More than a hundred athletes signed an open letter to the organization led by Gianni Infantino asking it to give up sponsorship from the Saudi oil company, due to human rights violations in the country

Players ask FIFA to cancel Aramco contract
Players ask FIFA to cancel Aramco contract

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has received an appeal signed by more than a hundred professional footballers, in the form of an open letter, to renounce his current sponsorship contract with the Saudi oil company Aramco, due to human rights violations in Saudi Arabia.

“Aramco’s sponsorship is like a middle finger to women’s football,” the players stressed in the letter that was released this Tuesday.

FIFA, it should be remembered, signed an agreement this year with Aramco that makes the company, 98.5% owned by the Saudi State, an important financial partner until the end of 2027, a period of the season that includes two World Cups (in 2026 for men and in 2027 for women).

“FIFA could very well douse the pitch with oil and set it on fire,” the signatories charge, convinced that “the Saudi authorities are spending billions on sports sponsorships to try to divert attention from the regime’s brutal human rights record, but the way it treats women speaks for itself.”

In recent years, it has been clear that Saudi Arabia has invested a lot of money in sport, relying in particular on its sovereign wealth fund to promote football — an example of which is the Portuguese international Cristiano Ronaldo, who plays for Al Nassr —, tennis, Formula 1 and golf, but the Saudi kingdom has been accused internationally by various sectors of whitewashing its human rights record through sport.

“Our work as professional players is a dream come true for us and it also makes the girls who will be the players of the future dream. We deserve much more from our board of directors than this alliance with this nightmare partner,” reads the letter sent to FIFA, which also proposes the creation of an “evaluation committee”, in which the players would be represented, and which would “examine the ethical implications of future sponsorship contracts” from the entity that oversees world football.

The players are asking FIFA to “reconsider this partnership and replace the Saudi company Aramco with another sponsor whose values ​​respect gender equality and human rights, and contribute to a sustainable future for the planet.”