FIFA takes the top prize at the Bad Sport Awards 2026
Tonight, the winners of the Bad Sport Awards 2026 were announced at an event hosted by the Cool Down - Sport for Climate Action Network and the Climate and Environment Community at Loughborough University's Institute of Advanced Studies.
Run by the Badvertising campaign, the awards call out the most egregious examples of greenwashing and sportswashing across global sport. Every year the competition is fierce.
However, this year, one organisation stood out from the field: FIFA walked away with two of the four awards.
Here's a quick rundown of who won:
Bad Sport of the Year: FIFA and Aramco
The top prize went to FIFA for making Aramco, the Saudi Arabian state-owned fossil fuel firm, its top-tier sponsor. Aramco is the world's largest corporate emitter. According to the Carbon Majors database, it was responsible for 4.28% of global CO₂ emissions in 2024, more than any other company.
Research estimates that Aramco's sponsorship of the 2026 men's World Cup will generate 34.7 million tonnes of carbon emissions (MtCO₂e). That is 83% of all the sponsorship-driven emissions from the tournament's big-polluter sponsors. It is also far more than the tournament's own operational emissions, which already made it the most polluting World Cup in the tournament’s nearly 100 year history.
FIFA did all this while remaining a signatory to the UN's Sport for Climate Action Framework. The deal also covers the 2027 Women's World Cup, despite more than 100 women players publicly objecting. And Aramco became a FIFA partner just months before Saudi Arabia was handed the 2034 World Cup.
'Shirt of Shame': Italy's national teams and SOCAR
On 26 September, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) signed a deal making SOCAR, Azerbaijan's state oil company, the global energy partner of Italy's men's and women's national teams. It runs from January 2027 to December 2030, with an option to extend to 2032.
The agreement was signed in Baku at an investment forum held under the patronage of President Ilham Aliyev. It also comes as SOCAR expands its Italian retail business, having bought the Italiana Petroli (IP) network of petrol stations. In effect, the Azzurri shirt now doubles as an advert for the petrol forecourt.
It beat strong competition: the Fremantle Dockers and Woodside, the LA Dodgers and Phillips 66, and the Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team. In two of those cases, fans have organised to push their clubs to drop the deals.
'Podium Polluter': Eni
Eni, Italy's fossil fuel major, was one of the premium domestic sponsors of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics: a Games whose snow is disappearing because of rapid warming.
Temperatures in the Alps are rising at twice the global average. Several Italian ski resorts have already closed, and organisers relied heavily on energy-intensive artificial snow. Just one year of Eni's CO₂ emissions could melt enough glacier ice to fill 2.5 million Olympic swimming pools.
Scientists for Global Responsibility’s report Olympics Torched found that the Winter Games will generate 930,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO₂e). In the coming years, those emissions will cause the loss of roughly 2.3 square kilometres of snow cover and more than 14 million tonnes of glacier ice.
'Bad Award' Award: the FIFA Peace Prize
FIFA's second trophy of the night came for an award of its own making. FIFA announced its new Peace Prize weeks after the Nobel Committee passed over Donald Trump in October 2025. FIFA President Gianni Infantino then presented it to Trump himself at the World Cup draw.
That was a week in which the US administration was under scrutiny for lethal strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, and as plans were afoot for military action against Iran. The recipient was also the host-nation president whose country had withdrawn from the Paris Agreement, at a tournament sponsored by Aramco.
On why this matters for sport, Andrew Simms of the Badvertising campaign, commented:
"Unlike previous editions of the Bad Sport Awards, FIFA didn't just turn up this year, it practically hosted them. Selling the top tier of the world's most beloved game to the planet's biggest corporate polluter, then handing a 'Peace Prize' to the president who pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement, has been a masterclass in betraying the sport and the climate it depends on. By serving its own interests rather than the game's, FIFA has alienated the fans, players and grassroots clubs who are already paying the price of climate breakdown through flooded pitches and cancelled fixtures. No sport should be a billboard for the companies polluting its future."
The full shortlist:
Bad Sport of the Year: FIFA Men's World Cup 2026 sponsored by Aramco (winner); Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics; Saudi Arabia 2034 World Cup; AFCON 2025 sponsored by TotalEnergies.
'Shirt of Shame': Italian national teams sponsored by SOCAR (winner); Fremantle Dockers sponsored by Woodside; LA Dodgers sponsored by Phillips 66; Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team.
'Podium Polluter': Eni (winner); Aramco; Equinor; TotalEnergies.
'Bad Award' Award: FIFA Peace Prize to Donald Trump (winner); Aramco's FIFA Young Player of the Tournament Award; Gianni Infantino's 'Titan of Freedom' award.
Want to see who has topped the table before? Explore previous Bad Sport Awards winners on the Badvertising website.