100+ Women footballers demand FIFA ditch Saudi Aramco deal

Avatar
FIFA has introduced a new commercial partnership structure that will provide companies worldwide with increased opportunities to partner with soccer.

Over 100 professional women’s football players, including five Australians, have signed an open letter urging FIFA to drop its major sponsorship deal with Saudi Aramco, a state-owned oil conglomerate.

In the letter published on Monday, 106 players from 24 countries called on FIFA to reconsider its partnership with Aramco, citing concerns over human rights violations, the oil giant is 98.5% owned by Saudi Arabia.

Among the signatories are Matildas stars Aivi Luik and Alex Chidiac, alongside Australian players Isobel Dalton (Perth Glory), Emma Ilijoski (Canberra United), and Winonah Heatley (Nordsjaelland).

The letter highlights how LGBTQ+ players are being asked to promote a company from a country where same-sex relationships are criminalised and also expresses concerns about the oil giant’s role in contributing to climate change.

FIFA signed a four year worldwide partnership deal with Saudi Aramco back in April, which includes rights across multiple major tournaments, including the World Cup 2026 and the Women’s World Cup 2027. It’s also expected that Saudi Arabia will win the bid for the 2034 Men’s World Cup, signalling no real change in FIFA’s morals.

The letter highlights multiple human rights violations against women, including fitness instructor Manahel al-Otaibi sentenced to 11 years in prison under ‘anti-terror’ laws for promoting female empowerment on social media, the week after the partnership between FIFA and Aramco was confirmed.

The letter also asks FIFA three important questions:

  1. How can FIFA justify this sponsorship given the human rights violations committed by the Saudi authorities?
  2. How can FIFA defend this sponsorship given Saudi Aramco’s significant responsibility for the climate crisis?
  3. What is FIFA’s response to our proposal of the establishment of a review committee with player representation?

However, FIFA have spoken to ABC Sport about this issue where they mentioned the deal was unlikely to be removed despite these recent events.

“FIFA is an inclusive organisation with many commercial partners also supporting other organisations in football and other sports,” the organisation said in a statement to ABC Sport.

“Sponsorship revenues generated by FIFA are reinvested back into the game at all levels and investment in women’s football continues to increase, including for the historic FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 and its groundbreaking new distribution model.

“As well as the increased support for teams at the tournament last year, FIFA’s updated Women’s Football Strategy for 2023-2027 further highlights how commercial revenues are reinvested back into the development of the women’s game. FIFA’s financial figures are also published annually.”

This bold stand by the 106 players represents one of the most significant pushbacks women’s football has seen against a major sponsor. It’s inspiring to witness how outspoken these athletes have been, despite the powerful influence of such a controversial partner.

Women’s football, which has long faced neglect and inadequate playing conditions, has steadily improved as the game has grown, but it’s clear these players are not just content with progress—they’re pushing for greater accountability.

The sponsorship with Aramco, in light of its links to human rights abuses and its environmental impact, feels like a direct affront to the principles these athletes uphold.

Whilst FIFA currently remain quite hesitant to change this fact, there is momentum growing behind this movement and it’s the only way change will be brought to the game.

Previous ArticleNext Article

Tasmania’s State Budget Commits $350,000 to Football Facility Planning as $80 million Home of Football Moves Closer to Reality

Avatar
Image Credit: Football Tasmania

The Tasmanian State Government has committed $350,000 in seed funding for the next stage of planning for Football Tasmania‘s proposed Home of Football, moving the state’s most significant football infrastructure project closer to construction and signalling political recognition that demand for rectangular facilities in Tasmania has outgrown what currently exists.

The funding, confirmed in the 2026-27 State Budget handed down last week, sits within an almost $200 million investment in sport and recreation across the budget and forward estimates: a package the government describes as designed to improve access and participation for Tasmanians of all ages. The football allocation is listed alongside a $25 million community sporting infrastructure commitment at Kingborough, $12.5 million for new multipurpose indoor sporting courts at New Town Bay, and $8 million for the Domain Tennis Centre redevelopment.

Football Tasmania CEO Tony Pignata OAM welcomed the commitment as an acknowledgement of the structural gap between participation numbers and available infrastructure, particularly in the state’s south.

“The State Government’s delivery on this commitment shows us that they understand that demand outstrips supply for rectangular facilities in the state,” Pignata said. “If we are to continue to grow and develop future Matildas and Socceroos, we need to invest in the infrastructure our game so desperately needs.”

The proposed $80 million facility would include six full-sized pitches, three synthetic and three turf, alongside four five-a-side pitches, modern changerooms for both men and women, and dedicated training facilities. The design is intended to serve every level of the game simultaneously, from grassroots junior competitions through to national-level tournaments.

From grassroots to A-League ambitions

Football Tasmania has framed the facility’s purpose across a deliberately wide range of uses. At the community end, it would provide a permanent home for junior games and regional tournaments that currently compete for limited rectangular ground availability across the state. At the elite end, it would create the capacity to host national competitions including the Emerging Matildas and Emerging Socceroos Championships, flagship state competitions such as the Statewide Cup finals, and potentially, in time, an A-League team.

That last ambition is the most significant and the most distant. Pignata was measured but direct in raising it, situating a Tasmanian A-League club alongside the NBL’s Jackjumpers, the WNBL’s Jewels and the AFL’s Devils as part of the state’s emerging identity as a home for national sporting competition.

“One day down the track, we anticipate this would become home to our very own A-League team, so that we take our rightful place in the nation’s elite competition,” he said.

The pathway from planning funding to A-League admission is long and would require sustained political and commercial support well beyond the current commitment. But the logic is consistent with how football infrastructure investment has worked elsewhere in Australia. The facility comes first, and the competitive pathway follows. Without a purpose-built ground that meets the standards required for elite competition, the conversation about an A-League team cannot begin in earnest.

The equity dimension

The inclusion of modern women’s and men’s changerooms in the facility’s design carries more weight than it might appear. Community and semi-professional football facilities across Australia have historically been built to male standards, with women’s changerooms added as afterthoughts or not included at all. That inadequacy has been consistently identified as a barrier to female participation and to the hosting of women’s competitions at venues that cannot accommodate them properly.

A purpose-built facility that treats women’s infrastructure as a design requirement rather than a retrofit positions the Home of Football to serve the growth of women’s football in Tasmania in a way that existing facilities cannot. The state recorded 41,395 registered football participants in 2025, a number that has been growing and that the current rectangular facility stock was not built to support at this scale.

Additionally, the government’s Ticket to Play program, which provides eligible children with two vouchers worth up to $100 each for sporting participation, and the Ticket to Wellbeing program offering $100 vouchers to eligible seniors, represent indirect but meaningful support for football participation across the state’s communities.

Pignata also acknowledged outgoing Football Tasmania President Bob Gordon, who he said had dedicated almost a decade to the organisation and had been instrumental in lobbying for this and other facilities across the state.

The $350,000 planning commitment is a beginning. The $80 million facility it is intended to progress remains subject to further government investment and development approval.

Football NSW calls on clubs to Make It Red for Heart Health Round

Avatar
Image Credit: Shutterstock

Football NSW is calling on clubs and associations across the state to register for the 2026 Make It Red campaign, joining a national awareness movement aimed at reducing heart-related deaths on sporting grounds ahead of Heart Health Round on the weekend of June 5 to 7.

The campaign, developed by the Heartbeat of Football Foundation, asks sporting clubs to wear red, raise funds and build awareness around heart disease and sudden cardiac arrest, which is the leading single cause of disease burden and death in Australia for both men and women, and one that health authorities say is largely preventable through modifiable risk factors.

The call to action comes as the Foundation continues its work to map and register Automated External Defibrillators across NSW sporting facilities, a project that has already engaged twelve football associations and fed data into both the NSW Ambulance GoodSAM registry and NSW Health’s public AED map. The availability of a functioning, registered AED on site is among the most significant determinants of survival following sudden cardiac arrest, with survival rates declining sharply for every minute without defibrillation.

Football NSW is encouraging clubs to engage with the campaign across three areas. Clubs can register for the Make It Red campaign to help fund research, education and prevention programs. Participants, particularly those aged over 35, are encouraged to seek a free heart health screening test from their local GP or enquire about hosting a Heartbeat of Football testing day. Clubs are also urged to ensure their grounds have active, accessible AEDs in place, with guidance available through Football NSW’s Rescue Ready Guide.

The Make It Red campaign runs from June 5 to July 12, with Heart Health Round taking place across the opening weekend. Clubs can register and access participation resources at makeitred.org.

Most Popular Topics

Editor Picks

Send this to a friend