Aramco: Rich on oil, rich on sport
Aramco is Saudi Arabia’s second-largest sports sponsor, with 71 sponsorships across football, golf and cricket, among others. Yet, despite its expanding presence in sports, the state-run oil giant is facing criticism from athletes and environmental activists over its continued abuses.
Photo: Icon Sportswire, Julio Aguilar/Stringer, NurPhoto/Getty Images. Illustration: Play the Game
This article is part of Play the Game’s report ‘Saudi Arabia’s grip on world sport’ published in December 2024.
The report is based on a dataset which maps 910 sponsorships in sport and 1,412 positions held across Saudi entities.
Read more about the project and download the report and the full dataset
In 1988, the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) was officially established and has grown into one of the world’s largest companies and oil producers, fueling decades of prosperity in Saudi Arabia.
However, Aramco is more than an economic engine for Saudi Arabia. It is also a key component of the Kingdom’s rebranding efforts and today serves as an important vehicle for projecting soft power through international sports such as football, golf, and cricket.
Aramco’s football venture
In April 2024, FIFA and Aramco announced that the Saudi Arabian oil giant had become FIFA’s “Major Worldwide Partner” in a deal that is reportedly valued at more than 100 million US dollars per year.
The lucrative partnership, which will run through to the end of 2027, gives Aramco sponsorship rights for the football governing body’s most prestigious upcoming events, including the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The FIFA-Aramco partnership, which comes on the heels of a similar partnership between Aramco and the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf), marked a significant advancement in the Kingdom’s global sports takeover and underscores the growing influence of the world’s largest oil and gas producer, which also happens to be the main source of funding for the Saudi regime.
Female footballers condemn FIFA partnership
Saudi Arabia’s investments in football and its deal with FIFA faced backlash in October 2024 when more than 100 professional female football players wrote an open letter condemning FIFA’s partnership with Aramco.
The letter called on FIFA to reconsider the deal, which it referred to as a “middle finger to women’s soccer.”
It criticised the oil company’s contribution to the climate crisis, as well as Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations, particularly against women and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
“The Saudi authorities trample not only on the rights of women, but on the freedom of all other citizens too,” read the letter.
“Imagine LGBTQ+ players, many of whom are heroes of our sport, being expected to promote Saudi Aramco during the 2027 World Cup, the national oil company of a regime that criminalises the relationships that they are in and the values they stand for?”
Aramco’s role in golf
Much of the oil giant’s growing involvement in sports is being driven by Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who serves as chairman of Aramco and governor of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), one of the world’s wealthiest sovereign wealth funds.
Notably, he is also chairman of the Saudi Golf Federation, Golf Saudi, and LIV Golf, all key players in Saudi Arabia’s strategic influence in the golf world.
Golf has become a significant tool in Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic efforts, highlighted by Al-Rumayyan’s golf outings with Donald Trump at a side event of the LIV Golf tournament – a breakaway series financed by the PIF.
Donald Trump and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the PIF, the sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, at the 1st tee prior to the start of the second round of LIV golf invitational series on July 30, 2022, in Bedminster, New Jersey. Photo: Icon Sportswire/Getty Images
Saudi-backed golf tournaments
¤ Aramco Saudi Ladies International
¤ Aramco Team Series (5 events across the world)
¤ PIF Saudi International
¤ Saudi Open presented by PIF
¤ LIV Golf (14 events across the world)
Find more details in the dataset
Cricket: Aramco’s gateway to India
In 2022, Aramco expanded its reach in the Indian subcontinent when it joined forces with the Indian Premier League (IPL) in cricket. At the time, the IPL registered more than 405 million viewers – a figure that rose by 32% the following year.
However, the deal was short-lived. After running into “legal complexities” that complicated Saudi’s efforts to invest further in the IPL, the Kingdom decided to discontinue the partnership, and focus instead on its partnership with the International Cricket Council (ICC). The Aramco-ICC partnership includes sponsorship of all the ICC’s major events and allows Aramco to connect with an audience of millions of fans.
Following a successful initial term, which ran from October 2022 until early 2024, Aramco and the ICC have agreed to a four-year extension to the partnership, which further cements Aramco’s role as a major commercial partner in the cricket world.
Saudi Arabia is also set to host the IPL player auction in 2025, which is one of the most watched events in cricket.
The world’s biggest polluter
Aramco’s expanding presence in sports has faced criticism, particularly from climate reporters and activists highlighting the company’s poor environmental record.
Since 1965, Aramco is estimated to be the largest corporate contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, and its failure to meet sustainability targets led the UN to warn the company it was non-compliant with the Paris Agreement.
FIFA requires its partners to live up to a number of sustainability requirements but refuses to discuss whether Aramco fulfil these requirements. In reply to questions from Play the Game about its partnership with Aramco, FIFA offered the following statement:
“FIFA’s partnership with Aramco was established on the shared values of innovation, development and social enterprise. As is the case with all FIFA’s commercial partnerships, revenues generated are invested back into global football development via the FIFA Forward fund – and make a tangible, visible and meaningful impact on the lives of millions around the world.”