Tommy Martin: We are all weary as world is carved up by its worst people

Agg had been a signatory of the letter alongside high profile figures in the women’s game like Dutch legend Vivianne Miedema, Denmark’s Pernille Harder, Canadian captain Jessie Fleming, former USA captain Becky Sauerbrunn as well as Irish colleagues Diane Caldwell, Amber Barrett, Sinead Farrelly, Kyra Carusa, Ciara Grant and Emma Beckett.

The letter described Aramco’s association with the 2027 tournament – part of a reported $1bn overall sponsorship deal with FIFA – as “a middle finger to women’s football”, “a stomach punch to the women’s game, undermining decades of work from fans and players around the globe” and described Aramco as a “nightmare sponsor.” 

“Saudi authorities have been spending billions in sports sponsorship to try to distract from the regime’s brutal human rights reputation, but its treatment of women speaks for itself,” says the letter, addressed personally to FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

It details cases like that of a Leeds PhD student, dental hygienist and a mother of two Salma al-Shehab who was sentenced in January 2023 to 27 years in prison followed by a 27-year travel ban for retweeting in favour of free speech, as well as the women’s rights activist Loujain Al-Hathloul, jailed for campaigning against the law preventing women from driving and still subject to a travel ban even after the law was repealed.

The letter also tackles LGBTQ+ issues, particularly relevant for a sport which has so many celebrated, openly gay players. “The Saudi authorities trample not only on the rights of women, but on the freedom of other citizens too. Imagine LGBTQ+ players, many of whom are heroes in our sport, being expected to promote Saudi Aramco during the 2027 World Cup, the national oil company of a regime that criminalises the relationships that they are in and the values they stand for.” 

Aramco’s core business gets a mention too. “Finally, as the largest state-owned oil and gas company in the world, Saudi Aramco is one of the corporations which is most responsible for burning football’s future.” 

FIFA’s response was limited to the blandest of PR missives. "FIFA values its partnership with Aramco and its many other commercial and rights partners," adding that "sponsorship revenues generated by FIFA are reinvested back into the game at all levels and investment in women's football continues to increase."

No wonder Agg sounded weary. And there’s more of that to come. On December 11th, FIFA will announce Saudi Arabia’s as the winning bid to host the 2034 men’s World Cup. We know this because it is the only bid to host the 2034 World Cup. Fancy that!

And we know what comes now. Qatar 2022 was a dry run. The reports, the protests, the questions, the numbers of dead workers and jailed dissidents. Here we go again.

Just this week, ITUC-Africa, a trade union organisation that represents 18 million African workers, submitted a complaint to the United Nations against labour practices in Saudi Arabia, claiming that “the relentless cycle of abuse and exploitation mark the daily existence of African migrant workers in Saudi Arabia…[whose] bid to host the 2034 Fifa World Cup raises severe concerns about the potential escalation of these abuses.” 

On Monday, it was reported that two US senators had sent a letter to FIFA urging it not to award the 2034 tournament to Saudi Arabia. “Approving Saudi Arabia’s bid this December endangers workers, athletes, tourists, and members of the press, and it runs counter to Fifa’s own human rights policies,” Democrats Ron Wyden of Oregon and Dick Durbin of Illinois wrote in a letter seen by the Associated Press.

“The kingdom continues to torture dissidents, engage in extrajudicial killings, discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community, oppress women and religious minorities, exploit and abuse foreign workers, and restrict almost all political rights and civil liberties,” the letter added.

And on and on it goes. A recent ITV documentary, Kingdom Uncovered, estimated that around 21,000 Nepalese, Bangladeshi and Indian workers have died since the launch of the Saudi Vision 2030 modernisation project. And they haven’t even started on the World Cup yet. This is Qatar with bells on. Except Saudi Arabia is bigger and better at this. It already owns big chunks of world sport, golf, boxing, snooker, horse racing, all appetisers for the big one.

There’s a lot of it about these days, that weariness that Agg reflected. The world is being carved up and devoured by some of its worst people. It’s Gianni Infantino cavorting with Mohamed Bin Salman, but it’s also Trump and Elon and all that mad lot, Putin and Netanyahu showing off their missiles, the oil barons being given the red-carpet treatment at COP 29.

There’s a sense of a great big stitch up going on. And tough if you are woman locked up in Saudi, a gay footballer expected to promote a country that would have jailed if it could, or a migrant worker toiling towards your death. And tougher if you are being bombed to bits in Gaza or Lebanon or eastern Ukraine or wiped off the face of the earth by climate-related disasters.

You could complain but, as Lily Agg said, you wouldn’t be doing it with ‘potentially high expectations’.