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NZ Football chief executive Andrew Pragnell said the fact that Visit Saudi wouldn’t be sponsoring this year’s Fifa Women’s World Cup was a “great outcome”.
New Zealand Football chief executive Andrew Pragnell is “incredibly proud” of everyone who voiced their opposition to the sponsorship deal Fifa had reportedly struck with the Saudi Arabia tourism board for this year’s Women’s World Cup in July and August.
The tournament is being co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia and on Friday [NZ time], Fifa president Gianni Infantino shut down the idea that Visit Saudi would be a sponsor of it – aligning the world’s largest women’s sporting event with marketing for travel to a country where the rights of women are severely restricted.
Shortly after being re-elected for a new four-year term, Infantino labelled the situation a “storm in a teacup” and said: “There were discussions with Visit Saudi but, in the end, these did not lead to a contract”.
When the prospect was first reported on in early February, the chairs of NZ Football and Football Australia wrote a letter to Fifa outlining their concerns, and Pragnell said it was only at Infantino’s press conference after the annual Fifa Congress in Rwanda that he had confirmation it wouldn’t be happening.
He said he didn’t want to split hairs as to whether there could have been fuller engagement on the issue before that and simply described what happened as “a really positive outcome”.
“There’s a place here for further reflection on the impacts on host associations and the role of sponsorship alignment with tournaments.
“I’d like to think it’s opened further positive dialogue on the subject.
“I think it’s a great outcome for the Women’s World Cup and something for Fifa to take stock of in the future.”
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Pragnell said he was “incredibly proud” of those who spoke out on the issue, a group which included the organisation he leads as well as American star Alex Morgan, who labelled the prospect as “bizarre,” and Dutch star Vivianne Miedema, who said Fifa should be “deeply ashamed”.
“I think it shows we stand for something. It’s too easy to hide behind the parapet on these issues.
“If you don’t stand for what your stakeholders believe in and in particular what your players believe in, then you got to question what you stand for at all.
“I’m equally proud of the players and the unions as well who made comment on this, and, I might add, our commercial partners as well. There was a lot of alignment on this issue and it was heard.
“I think it’s a good day for the game. It’s a great outcome for New Zealand Football and Football Australia and actually a sign that Fifa is reforming and continuing to move in the right direction.”
Two weeks ago, Pragnell said he was still waiting for “serious dialogue” with Fifa about the reported Visit Saudi deal, but was encouraged by the fact there hadn’t been any confirmation of it.
”We have had meetings in which it was noted that our feedback had been received and that there were a lot of internal discussions that needed to take place within Fifa and that we were having an impact,” Pragnell said on Friday.
“That’s why I hypothesised that there was a rethink in place. I certainly didn’t know it until it was formally announced, so as that came out, that was really pleasing from my perspective.”
In confirming Visit Saudi wouldn’t be a sponsor of the World Cup, Infantino took aim at what he considered to be a “double standard,” specifically ponting to how Australian companies are happy to engage in US$1.5 billion [NZ$2.43b] with Saudi Arabia on an annual basis.
Pragnell said he thought that was “a long bow to draw”.
“Broadly speaking, we support a policy of engagement over isolation. Generally speaking, that is the best way to generate change in communities which you may or may not belong to.
“However, I think you’ve got to look at the specifics, particularly around this tournament. I think that the greatest hypocrisy would’ve been to have a commercial partner who was potentially so far behind in issues around gender equality aligned with a tournament that speaks to the celebration and empowerment of gender equality.
“I don’t think there’s an equivalence there with the bilateral trade. In instances like this you have to make sure you have strong values alignment with the specific activity.
“I think there’s a lesson in all of this. We are going to see more of it. We’ve already seen this happen across sports and commercial partners will also want to think carefully that they’re about what they align with as well because they risk PR damage and backlash if their commercial behaviours don’t align with the sports event that they’re set to be supporting and celebrating.”
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