Australia’s professional footballers union and LGBTQ+ advocates have criticised Fifa for accepting sponsorship from the Saudi Arabian tourism authority for the Women’s World Cup later this year, with one group saying the event is now being sponsored by a country where many players and fans would be persecuted for being themselves.
Fifa is expected to confirm that Visit Saudi will join international brands such as Adidas, Coca-Cola and Visa in attaching its name to the 32-team tournament that will kick off in front of an expected 50,000 supporters at Auckland’s Eden Park on 20 July.
The deal has been agreed under Fifa’s new “commercial partnership structure” dedicated to developing revenues specifically for the women’s game, with funds generated from the World Cup going back into the sport.
The arrangement has been condemned by human rights groups, which have called the move a “textbook case of sportswashing”, and in a statement the New Zealand sport minister, Grant Robertson, said football bodies that are part of Fifa, including NZ Football, have written to Fifa to express their concern.
Consensual same-sex sexual conduct is strictly prohibited in Saudi Arabia, punishable by death or flogging. Sexual relations outside marriage are banned, and it is illegal for men “to behave like women” or to wear women’s clothes and vice versa.
The Professional Footballers Australia co-chief executive Kathryn Gill also condemned the move, saying players were the “public face” of Fifa’s major tournaments, but their voice had been excluded from a decision-making process that would benefit from their involvement.
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“Fifa is obliged to respect all internationally recognised human rights and to exert its considerable leverage when they are not being respected or protected. However, they have consistently shown that they lack the willingness to uphold their stated human rights commitments.
“The players’ objective is to make the 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup a genuine force for good, and they will continue to hold Fifa to account when they undermine this.”
Organisers of the A-League’s Pride Cup, which is due to be held on 16 February between Melbourne Victory and Adelaide United, said in a statement the decision disregarded the “human rights of players, fans and officials”.
“The FIFA Women’s World Cup is now being sponsored by a country where many players and fans would be persecuted and arrested for being themselves.”
Dr Ryan Storr, a research associate at the Sport Innovation Research Group at Swinburne University of Technology, said the deal was “a bit of a mess”, adding that the Saudi Arabian tourism body was not a “good fit” for the tournament.
“Saudi Arabia actually has one of the world’s worst legal systems around LGBT qualities and around homosexuality in particular,” he said.
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Women Onside, an NGO focused on advocating for women in football, said it was “concerned” by the deal, adding it highlighted Fifa’s “indifference” to human rights records.
“While there has been progress for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia in recent years, including the establishment of a women’s national football team, Saudi Arabia remains an authoritarian state where rights for women and minority groups are constrained, same-sex relationships are illegal, freedom of expression is limited and dissidents are jailed.
“Visit Saudi is not an appropriate sponsor for the Women’s World Cup.”
A number of legal changes have been introduced in recent years in Saudi Arabia, including ending the ban on women driving and making amendments to the oppressive guardianship law that would allow, for the first time, women to apply for official documents such as a passport and to travel abroad independently.
However, women still have to obtain male guardian permission to get married, leave prison, or obtain some forms of sexual and reproductive healthcare. Male guardians can also bring legal action against women for “disobedience” and being absent from home.
Fifa has not replied to a request for comment.