How Women’s Soccer Turned Down Saudi Arabian Sponsorship—for Now
By former Australian national team member Moya Dodd’s count, the first goal of the 2023 Women’s World Cup came six months before the opening match. And it was an own goal.
At the time, FIFA was reportedly nearing a deal to have Visit Saudi Arabia, a program from the Saudi Tourism Authority, sponsor this summer’s competition. Backlash to the news was swift.
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“For FIFA to tell LGBTQ players and fans they should ‘Visit Saudi’ is to send them to a jurisdiction where they are regarded as criminals,” Dodd wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald.
This year, at least 94 out LGBTQ athletes will participate in the Women’s World Cup, representing 22 teams, according to Outsports—more than double the number of out athletes in the 2019 tournament. While Saudi Arabia’s official tourism website says “Everyone is welcome to visit our country” in response to a posted question about LGBT visitors, homosexual activity is considered illegal, as is sex outside marriage, though prosecutions are uncommon.
Among a number of social reforms, Saudi Arabia began allowing women to attend soccer matches in 2017, with a women’s national team established in 2021.
As part of Saudi Arabia’s 2030 Vision program, the country is hoping to attract 100 million tourists by that year, with plans to invest $1 trillion in the sector. Tourism spending is already growing, and the government has leaned on sports to get travelers’ attention, including inking a three-year deal with Lionel Messi in 2021 that could be worth up to $25 million for the soccer star.
A Saudi Tourism Authority spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
Former Australia men’s soccer captain Craig Foster compared Saudi Arabia sponsoring a global women’s sporting event to Exxon sponsoring COP28. Australia and New Zealand organizers asserted that they had not been consulted on the deal, and Human Rights Watch wrote a letter to FIFA expressing that the organization was “deeply troubled” that “the Saudi Tourism Authority could reportedly become FIFA’s major commercial partner for the 2023 Women’s World Cup, given Saudi Arabia’s poor track record of human rights and the arrest of peaceful critics and women’s rights defenders.”
Meanwhile U.S. star Alex Morgan called the potential partnership “bizarre,” adding: “Pretty much everyone has spoken out against it because morally it just doesn’t make sense.”
Six weeks later, the sponsorship was off. Speaking in Rwanda, FIFA president Gianni Infantino confirmed that there was no contract between the parties, calling the entire debate “a storm in a teacup.”
But Infantino also said, “We want to see how we can involve Saudi sponsors in women’s football generally,” leaving the bab ajar.
The flow of money from gulf states into international sports has been one of the industry’s hottest topics of conversation this year, from LIV Golf to Cristiano Ronaldo signing with Al-Nassr FC. That current is increasingly intersecting with another megatrend: the growing investment in women’s sports. The result has often been turbulent. Stormy, one could say.
Golf Saudi now hosts six Ladies European Tour stops, with frequent talks of a LIV women’s league bubbling up before the PGA Tour joint venture changed the equation. Last October, Saudi activist Lina Alhathloul urged women’s golf leaders to avoid involvement with LIV Golf, particularly after her sister, Loujain, was imprisoned for her women’s rights activism.
Meanwhile, the Women’s Tennis Association confirmed on July 3 that it is evaluating the possibility of staging an event in the country. Billie Jean King, former world No. 1 tennis player and gender equality advocate, has supported the idea. “There’s a lot of money, which is very important to keep having money to help the players, but also help run the WTA, run the ATP and all that,” she said. “How are we going to change if we don’t engage?”
“If [Saudi Arabia] could help getting us to equal prize money, though there are negatives, there’s a lot of positives that can come out of it,” top-ranked American and WTA player council member Jessica Pegula told reporters ahead of Wimbledon.
Women’s soccer, then, appears to be among the stiffer holdouts when it comes to playing ball with the PIF.
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