It was on Monday that the sports website The Athletic announced that the state-owned tourism company Visit Saudi was to become one of the official sponsors of the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand this summer, in which Norway will participate. The agreement between Saudi Arabia and Fifa has have not been made public, but the organizing countries have received the reports. And they don’t like it. – We are very disappointed that the Australian Football Association was not consulted before a decision was made, says a spokesperson for the Football Association to The Athletic. The Australian Football Association, together with the association in New Zealand, contacted Fifa and demanded an unbiased explanation of the Visit Saudi reports. Visit Saudi was also a sponsor of the WC in Qatar last year. PICTURED TOGETHER: Fifa President Gianni Infantino and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. They have been pictured together on several occasions. Photo: CHRISTIAN HARTMANN / Reuters – Hypocritical Director of women’s football in Australia, Bonita Mersiades, lashes out against the alleged agreement: – That Visit Saudi will sponsor the Women’s World Cup is just one more example of how Fifa and football are hypocritical when it comes to their values say they have and where the money actually comes from, she tells The Athletic. She is far from the only one to react, and news’s sports commentator Jan Petter Saltvedt uses the same description. – It doesn’t come as much of a surprise. And there is a great deal of hypocrisy about it, says Saltvedt. – There is reason to ask oneself if this commitment to women’s participation in sport runs deep or if it is just part of the reputation washing, says Frank Conde Tangberg, political adviser at Amnesty, to news. CRITICAL: Political adviser at Amnesty, Frank Conde Tangberg. Photo: Tom Balgaard / news – It is disturbing that sport, which is always preoccupied with asserting its autonomy, is increasingly being used by authoritarian regimes that wish to strengthen their reputation by, among other things, diverting attention away from their own human rights violations, he says further. Now they are seriously moving into women’s football as well. news has contacted the authorities in Saudi Arabia and asked several questions, but has so far not received an answer. Fifa has not yet responded to news’s inquiries either. New to football The Saudi Arabian Football Association was both founded and incorporated as a Fifa member in 1956, but it was only in 2018 that women began to get involved in what is by far the country’s most popular sport. In 2018, women were allowed to watch football matches from the stands for the first time. Before that, there was a ban on women in the stadium. In the same year, they were also allowed to go to the cinema and drive a car. AT THE MATCH: It has only been a few years since Saudi Arabian women got to see football matches in the stadium. Here they celebrate Saudi Arabia’s victory over Argentina in the World Cup last year. Photo: Luca Bruno / AP In 2020, a separate league for women was launched, and last year the women’s national team played its very first match: a private international match against the Seychelles. Recently they also organized a tournament which secured them a place in the Fifa rankings. On Wednesday, NTB also reported that Saudi Arabia secured a representative on Fifa’s board. This is also how Qatar worked before they got the World Cup. In the same year that they applied for and were awarded the WC in 2022, the women’s national team played their first official match. When news went to find the national team last autumn, they were almost impossible to find. But at the same time that things are changing: Saudi Arabian women are still subject to a protection system that limits their freedom. The guardianship system means that they need permission from a male family member for several things, for example to enter into marriage or seek certain health services. Men can easily file cases against women and base it on “disobedience”, which, according to Human Rights Watch, has resulted in arrests and women, against their will, having to return to custody. – HYPOCRITE: That’s what news’s sports commentator Jan Petter Saltvedt thinks. Photo: ALEM ZEBIC / news – It is of course extremely provocative when they go in and be part of this when the women in Saudi Arabia are in the position they are in, says Saltvedt. – The fact that they also enter a WC which is played in two of the world’s most equal countries is both absurd and provocative, he adds. On several fronts, Saudi Arabia, which last year executed 81 people in one day, has been blamed for engaging in sports laundering to cover up human rights violations for a long time. The Saudi Arabian investment fund is behind the controversial LIV Tour golf tournament. They have bought the Premier League club Newcastle United. According to Bloomberg, they wanted to buy Formula 1. Several football tournaments and matches, including the Spanish and Italian Supercups, are played in the country. SHINE: Cristiano Ronaldo (in light blue) and Lionel Messi recently met for a friendly match between a composite Saudi Arabian star team and PSG. Photo: Hussein Malla / AP They have Lionel Messi as their official ambassador. Cristiano Ronaldo is the big star of a Saudi Arabian team. And they are positioning themselves to host the football World Cup in 2030. – They are showing power, presence and position. They show the whole world that they have plans to take part in absolutely all the biggest arenas in the future. They will create an image of a modern football nation, and not least a worthy, future World Cup organiser, says Saltvedt, and adds: – They have decided to go “all in” on this project. And they show that they take all elements seriously. Because they do all the things that are on the thinking list for future applicants. Wants World Cup Several mediums have, for a long time, reported that Saudi Arabia wants to organize the men’s football World Cup in 2030 together with Egypt and Saudi Arabia. There is still only one clear candidate for now: Spain, Portugal and Ukraine have applied to organize together. IN THE TEAM: The Argentine superstar has posted several photos from Saudi Arabia on his Instagram. He is an ambassador for the country. Photo: Leomessi / Instagram Saudi Arabia has an overarching political strategy called “vision 2030”. Charlotte Lysa at the University of Oslo has previously told news that everything Saudi Arabia does now and in the future is done with their political goals in mind towards the year 2030. Positioning yourself within women’s football is part of the same line. – Saudi Arabia has ambitions to attract sports tournaments of various sizes, and the exclusion of women can make it extra difficult for Saudi Arabia to win some championships, says Tangberg in Amnesty. SENSATION: Saudi Arabia both shocked and impressed when they beat Argentina 2-1 in the opening match of the World Cup in Qatar. Photo: MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP Now, according to reports, Saudi Arabia will sponsor the women’s football World Cup together with big, well-known brands such as Adidas, Coca-cola and Visa. news has been in contact with the Norwegian Football Association around Saudi Arabia as a WC sponsor. They are investigating the matter more closely and have therefore not had the opportunity to comment.
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