Following protests from, among others, the World Cup hosts Australia and New Zealand, FIFA's newly elected President Gianni Infantino announced on Thursday that the tourist agency Visit Saudi does not sponsor the summer football World Cup for ladies.
During the FIFA Congress in Kigali, Rwanda, President Gianni Infantino said that the talks conducted with the Saudi tourist agency Visit Saudi on sponsorship "did not result in an agreement".
Australian Football Association's base James Johnson said on Friday that the League welcomes "the clarification from FIFA regarding Visit Saudi".
Continued cooperation
In a statement published on the Federation's website, he writes that "equality, diversity and inclusion are important commitments" for the Australian Football Federation and that it will continue to work with FIFA to ensure that the World Cup is implemented in accordance with those commitments.
The New Zealand Football Association also welcomed the announcement from FIFA and writes in a statement that "it is important that all commercial collaborations are consistent with each tournament's vision and values".
When it leaked a month ago that FIFA intended to sign sponsorship agreements with the Saudi tourist agency Visit Saudi, both World Cup hosts Australia and New Zealand protested, the human rights organization Amnesty International and several strong female football profiles.
Human rights
The American football stars Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe and the Dutch Vivianne Miedema meant that the International Football Association FIFA "should be ashamed" to even consider it. And the World Cup hosts were disappointed not to have been asked and felt that a Saudi sponsorship agreement rhymed badly with the vision of the championship.
The protests were mainly about Saudi Arabia's poor results in terms of human rights and the country's severe restrictions on women and bans on same-sex relationships.