The Hotspot: Aramco’s petrodollar backing of World Cup leaves stain of sportswashing

If you have watched the World Cup, you may have seen the big signs announcing Aramco as the tournament’s “energy partner”. This Saudi Arabian fossil fuel company also happens to be the world’s single largest corporate polluter while Saudi Arabia has, for decades, been the greatest stumbling block in international climate change negotiations. Aramco’s sponsorship is one aspect of Fifa’s increasing sportswashing that has angered fans around the world. This cosy relationship between modern football and the polluting industries has a long history that can be divided into three periods. First was when the game grew in British society as a tool to order and discipline workers and then became a cultural export of the British empire and capitalism. In the Factory Act of 1850, workers won the right to have Saturday afternoons free from work from 2pm, which is why the traditional kick-off is 3pm. European industrialism, militarism and colonialism further exported football across the globe and industrialisation in Britain helped create the conditions for competitions, with their need for order, discipline and structure. Football spread from England and Scotland to the industrial areas of north-east France, north-west Germany and around the ports of France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. Then came the postwar period when football was professionalised and increasingly dominated by clubs in the industrial cities. …