Australian Soccer Players "In Shock" over Saudi-FIFA Sponsorship Deal

[Webster]

(The Guardian) Australian football players in shock over Saudi-Fifa sponsorship deal
Australian football player Kate Gill has spoken to the ABC this morning about the recently announced sponsorship of Fifa’s women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand by the Saudi’s.

Players have been expressing shock and frustration over the potential sponsorship deal, saying they have largely been left out over the decision to take the money.

Speaking to the ABC this morning, Gill said it was “hard to see how they’ve coalesced to see how visiting Saudi is right for the Women’s World Cup”. -- When you look at the surface, you can see that it is a blatant disregard of their human rights treatment when you look at the country itself. LGBTI+ people are still regarded as criminals, and women over there still really face strict restrictions of their rights. And that’s notwithstanding the progressions that have been made as well. It just sat really uncomfortably when it was announced.

Gill said many players were “really avid human rights defenders” and wanted Fifa to listen to its players by rejecting the proposal. -- Those decisions then become the athletes. The athletes become the face of those decisions, and it’s really challenging when you don’t have full transparency over why these decisions are made and what has actually gone into the thought process behind this. It’s putting a lot of pressure on the players. So I think it would be welcomed if they would sit down and have the discussions with the players so they can fully understand and ask questions as to why this needs to happen.

Saudi Arabia has faced a string of human rights abuses in the past. Though Saudi Arabia has passed laws to give women more agency in their lives such as the right to drive, men still remain dominant and control decision-making within the kingdom.

Jamal Khashoggi, a US-based journalist and critic of Saudi Arabia, was murdered by government officials inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

The kingdom has hired US public relations firm, Edelman – a go-to public relations firm for the US oil and gas industry – in a $9.6m deal to clean up its public image. Saudi Arabia is also home to the world’s largest oil company, Saudi Aramco, which reported a 90% increase to their profits in June 2022.

The Women’s World Cup runs from 20 June 20 to 20 August.

Saudi Arabia has been named host of the 2027 Asian Cup. The country also has ambitions to host the World Cup in 2030 and the Women’s Asian Cup in 2026.

 

[KenDaGamer]

 

[Webster]

Redstate had the best response to all the whining....

2023 Women’s World Cup Organizers Outraged Over Effort to Make Event Profitable

The 2023 Women’s World Cup organizers are just now learning FIFA is in it strictly for the money?

redstate.com

The other major soccer story is how local organizers of this year’s Women’s World Cup tournament in Australia and New Zealand have grown quite wroth over FIFA accepting a tidy sponsorship sum from that legendary women’s rights champion Saudi Arabia. From Sky News: FIFA is facing backlash from Women’s World Cup co-hosts Australia and New Zealand over a potential sponsorship of the tournament by Saudi Arabia amid concerns about restrictions on women’s rights in the kingdom.

Football officials Australia and New Zealand said they were disappointed not to be consulted about the deal with Visit Saudi by FIFA before reports emerged.

“We cannot express strongly enough the potential repercussions and fallout that could result of his decision,” the Australian and New Zealand FAs wrote to FIFA. “Australis and New Zealand, both as sovereign nations and as football associations, have for decades placed the utmost importance on gender equality, and have sought to promote these ideals around the world.”

One may safely assume that in both countries, gender equality means abusing women with the same sadistic statist fervor over COVID lockdowns as men. But I digress. Where things get fuzzy is in that darn math aspect. The 2022 Qatar World Cup had an estimated outlay of $220B by the host country to build stadiums and bury foreign workers who died during the construction thereof. In 2011, FOX Sports and Telemundo paid between the two networks over $1B to have World Cup television rights in the United States. The deal was extended in 2015 to run through the 2026 World Cup. Little hint: the Women’s World Cup was a throw-in on the deal.

A 2020 story in The Conversation, while doing its utmost to extol the tournament’s benefits, couldn’t overcome cold reality. -- Whether it’s a good investment in an economic downturn requires weighing the benefits against the costs. And while some benefits are evident – the World Cup will no doubt be a huge boost for women’s football in both countries, as well as women’s sport overall – there are significant questions about the expected revenues and long-term economic benefit.

The story continues to lay out how any revenue generated from the tournament will be local only. TV money? FIFA’s. That sweet Saudi sponsorship money? Also FIFA’s. But hey, who can deny that Costa Rica vs. Zambia match will pack the house? Of course, it will be the player’s parents’ houses, but still.

Why haven’t these dewy-eyed dreamers that women’s sports will one day equal men’s in popularity figured out they are chasing the wind? It will never happen. Ever. It will never make the same amount of money. Ever. Demanding equity based on, um, whatever sounds nice. But it remains about the money and only about the money. And it’s a brutal fact that Messi coming to town sells a whole lot more of everything than Alex Morgan stopping by. And as far as being outraged by FIFA taking a check from Saudi Arabia … when it comes down to basics, it’s all about the money.