Craig Foster believes FIFA’s decision to welcome Saudi Arabia’s tourism arm as a sponsor of the forthcoming Women’s World Cup is both inappropriate and unsurprising, but does provide an opportunity for conversation about the expectations sport should have of host nations and corporate partners.
Football Australia and New Zealand Football last week wrote to FIFA seeking clarification on its deal with Visit Saudi, which essentially saw football’s governing body green-light the nation’s abject women’s rights record and criminalisation of homosexuality.
‘FIFA is an organisation that has one of the first and most robust human rights policies in global sport. We are bound to what’s called ‘all internationally recognised human rights’. We are not bound to any particular religion, region of the world, East or West, Foster told Box2Box.
‘But what we are bound to very clearly in the statutes of our global governing body, is internationally recognised principles of human rights. One of those is non-discrimination on grounds of gender, so it’s very clear what the responsibilities we have as a game, and that FIFA and [its president] Gianni Infantino have.
‘But here, the governing body has brought a sponsor into play that is from a state body, from a state demonstrably contravening women’s rights in a number of ways, and which criminalises the LGBTQI+ community.’
Foster sees little chance of the decision being overturned, although does expect strong player protests throughout the tournament. He also sees it as an opportunity to further discussion of global expectations of sporting events, without the vexed ‘East vs West’ tension which stymied most productive conversation during last year’s Men’s World Cup.
‘It does provide an opportunity for people to have this conversation… that we didn’t have around Qatar: ‘under what conditions does sport operate and what expectation does it have of its sponsors and hosts?’ Member federations do have a choice as to the host you accept, and certainly regarding sponsors, how aligned or unaligned are they with your corporate values?
‘That conversation needs to happen. So I think in one respect, Visit Saudi being a sponsor of the Women’s World Cup is going to trigger many very important conversations that we probably weren’t able to have around Qatar.’
The irony of the union between a women’s sporting tournament and Saudi Arabia has been lost on few. Progress has been made in some areas, with women able to attend football matches since 2017 and a newly-formed national women’s side playing nine matches since the start of 2022.
But the state’s guardianship law still exists, meaning every woman must have a lifetime male guardian who dictates whether they can marry, among other decisions. ILGA World also found ‘full legal certainty that the death penalty is the legally prescribed punishment for consensual same-sex sexual acts’ in their recent State-Sponsored Homophobia Report.
‘The women who are playing in the FIFA World Cup would not only have their rights contravened if they visited Saudi, but in fact they would be imprisoned, because a very large proportion of those playing have a sexuality which is criminalised in Saudi Arabia.
‘For that reason it’s a ridiculous decision, but one that’s consistent with Gianni Infantino and FIFA’s council in not wanting to live up to their human rights obligations in any way. In fact, they’re completely disregarding them.’