“FIFA and International Cricket Council under scrutiny over Saudi Aramco ties in light of UN Human Rights Warning”

Six of the world’s biggest sports organisations, including FIFA, the International Cricket Council (ICC) and Formula 1, have been challenged to justify their sponsorship deals with state-owned Saudi Aramco…

In letters sent this month, a coalition of ten human rights and climate organisations – including Human Rights Watch and Saudi organisations ALQST and ESOHR, supported by a number of professional athletes – expressed “grave concerns” that Aramco’s sponsorships risk undermining human rights law, global climate goals and the sports’ own sustainability commitments.

The letters follow a 2023 communication from the United Nations to 12 financial institutions and 5 world governments, cautioning that working with Aramco could contravene international human rights law and standards. Sent on Monday 15th September, the letters to FIFA, the ICC, Formula 1, Concacaf, Aston Martin and ASO (the organisers of the Dakar Rally) sought responses within two weeks. No responses were received…

Aramco is the world’s largest state-owned oil company and has a history of lobbying to delay climate action…

…These concerns were brought into sharp relief in March this year, when a migrant worker from Pakistan was killed after falling from a height while working on the construction of Aramco Stadium in Al-Khobar…