Football's biggest sponsor is the world's biggest polluter - and a new report says it's the most “dangerous deal” the game has ever seen
When the 2026 men's World Cup kicks off in Mexico City on 11 June, more than a billion people will be watching. So will the logo of Saudi Aramco - the state-owned oil company that is, by most measures, the largest corporate polluter on the planet, now stitched into the fabric of the world's most-watched sporting event as FIFA's biggest sponsor.
A new report argues that this is no ordinary sponsorship. Football Ignites the World, published by FairSquare alongside Fossil Free Football, Reclame Fossielvrij and Badvertising, makes the case that FIFA's deal with Aramco is arguably the most dangerous example of fossil fuel advertising and sponsorship the world has ever seen — and that it should renew the push for a ban on fossil fuel advertising across Europe and beyond.
Here at Cool Down, we've long argued that sport should be part of the climate solution, not a billboard for its problems. This report lays out, in detail, exactly what's at stake when the game lets the opposite happen.
A polluter on the world's biggest stage
In April 2024, FIFA confirmed Aramco as a Major Worldwide Partner - its biggest sponsor, in a deal running until the end of 2027 that covers both the 2026 men's World Cup and the 2027 Women's World Cup. The arrangement attaches the brand of Saudi Arabia's national oil and gas company to the global cultural force that is football, ensuring its logo is beamed into billions of homes the moment the tournament begins.
The 57-page report is built on detailed research, established climate science and expert legal analysis. It sets out the unique danger Saudi Arabia and Aramco pose to the climate - pointing to Aramco's vast reserves and business model, and Saudi Arabia's record of obstructing climate negotiations and working to keep global demand for oil high. It explains how fossil fuel advertising works on us, and how the reach and emotional pull of sport supercharge its effect. And it examines how FIFA's business model and governance have left the organisation open to capture by authoritarian states, with the Aramco deal the most visible link of all and one that can be challenged.
The heat is already here
This is not an abstract worry for football. It is already reshaping the game. Research ahead of this tournament has found that several host stadiums face extreme heat stress, with conditions in some venues exceeding FIFA's own safety thresholds for players and fans.
"This World Cup will be hotter than ever due to climate change, with the heat posing a serious risk for players and fans. And in the middle of an escalating climate crisis and a fossil fuel energy crisis, FIFA sells the world's biggest platform to an oil company and FIFA leadership cozies up the fossil fuel industry and its political friends. Football and football fans deserve so much better." — Frank Huisingh, Fossil Free Football
It is a painful contradiction. Even as governments work to phase out fossil fuels, the world's biggest polluter is handed the global stage at the World Cup, and the chance to win over a generation of fans through the sport they love.
A clear case for a ban
The Aramco deal is not the only way Saudi Arabia is extending its influence over football's world governing body. But from a climate perspective, the report argues, it is the most alarming and the most challengeable. A full section of legal analysis sets out how the European Union, in particular, could use the tools already at its disposal to stop major polluters harnessing the power of sport.
"Gianni Infantino talks about football uniting the world while stuffing FIFA's coffers with money from the world's largest polluter. That FIFA is assisting Aramco in its climate-wrecking endeavours is possibly the best argument we have ever seen in favour of a fossil fuel advertising ban and a further argument in support of imposing reforms on FIFA itself." — Nicholas McGeehan, FairSquare
"FIFA has a responsibility to safeguard the future of the game, but its deep and enduring relationship with Saudi Aramco undermines that commitment. Aramco is a major polluter that is actively undermining a future in which football can be played and enjoyed. If FIFA is serious about the future of football, it must cut ties with major polluters and stop using football as a billboard for more heat, more pollution and more disruption to the game." — Freddie Daley, Badvertising
What needs to happen
The report's publication lands amid a wave of public and media interest in how climate change is rewriting sport and follows a separate FairSquare investigation into serious abuses of migrant workers in Aramco's supply chain. The picture it paints is one football cannot keep ignoring.
We believe clubs, events and governing bodies should screen out polluting sponsors and turn down future deals with major polluters - and that the future of the game depends on it. That's the principle behind our Fossil Free Declaration, and it's the standard FIFA is failing to meet.