Leaders of the 2 nationwide soccer federations warned in a letter to FIFA, together with president Gianni Infantino, that unilaterally sealing the “Visit Saudi” sponsorship might “severely tarnish the reputation” of the 32-nation match that begins in July.

That is regardless of the tourism model being endorsed by males’s World Cup-winning captain Lionel Messi, who was introduced final yr as a paid pitchman.

Such a confrontation between a World Cup host and FIFA is unprecedented in current historical past, and is prone to shine extra consideration on so-called “sportswashing” investments by Saudi Arabia.

“We write to express our serious disappointment and concern at the news of the apparent appointment of Visit Saudi as a sponsor,” Chris Nikou of Australia and New Zealand’s Joanna Wood wrote Wednesday within the letter to FIFA seen by The Associated Press.

“We can not specific strongly sufficient the potential repercussions and fallout that would results of this choice.

“Australia 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,” the letter mentioned, reminding FIFA their governments have invested a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands within the soccer occasion.

Tournament organizers and authorities officers in each nations have been mentioned to not have been consulted, they claimed, nor supplied the possibility to make a counter proposal for a home tourism marketing campaign.

Wood is among the many few girls to guide one in every of FIFA’s 211 member federations and in addition an elected member of FIFA’s ruling council which Infantino chairs.

FIFA didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Saudi Arabia has made progress in girls’s soccer prior to now three years making a nationwide group and a home league, plus making ready a bid to host the 2026 Women’s Asian Cup.

In Saudi society, nonetheless, girls’s freedoms are restricted by strict male guardianship legal guidelines.

“While we acknowledge some important and positive gender equality reforms have commenced in Saudi Arabia, it remains undeniable under any reasonable standard that the rights of women remain severely restricted,” the Women’s World Cup hosts wrote to FIFA.

Tony Gustavsson, head coach of Australia’s girls’s nationwide group, didn’t instantly touch upon the problem of the sponsorship Thursday whereas unveiling a squad for the Feb. 16-22 Cup of Nations match, however mentioned “I know what these women stand for and what the team stands for.”

“I’ve had the privilege to meet the Matildas alumni and everyone knows the core values of this team,” he mentioned. Football Australia “is seeking more information and the team knows what they stand for.” The “Visit Saudi” marketing campaign was amongst greater than 30 sponsors on the males’s World Cup in Qatar final yr.

FIFA didn’t formally announce that deal which grew to become obvious by means of pitchside ads when the video games began in November.
The Women’s World Cup is to be performed July 20-Aug. 20. The United States is defending its title within the first version of the marquee match expanded to 32 groups.

It may even be the primary take a look at of FIFA’s coverage to separate broadcasting and sponsor offers for the Women’s World Cup from the lads’s occasion. That was meant to offer independence to girls’s soccer and show it had its personal business worth.

Infantino beforehand defended the ladies’s match when he used the platform of the finals match attract Auckland in October to criticize broadcasters for making gives for rights that FIFA deemed unacceptably low.