Football (soccer to us Yanks) is “the beautiful game.” The sport’s best players combine physical grace, mental agility, and joy on the field, just like the Brazilian legend Pele, who helped popularize the term.
But the beauty can’t mask the ugliness of the climate politics behind the 2026 World Cup. It’s not just that when Mexico and South Africa meet in Mexico City for the first match on June 11, they will kick off the most polluting football tournament in history.
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association, or FIFA, has scheduled 104 matches over 39 days across 16 venues in Mexico, the US, and Canada. The organization Scientists for Global Responsibility estimates the tournament will generate over 9 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, nearly twice the average for previous World Cups. About 85% of this pollution will come from air travel, including travel by coaches and players to the host countries as well as between host cities.
What has millions of fans—me included—even more up in arms is FIFA’s four-year, $400 million lead sponsorship deal, announced in 2024, with Saudi Aramco, the Saudi national oil company, one of the world’s biggest and most profitable oil companies.
The Aramco deal, which gives the oil company advertising slots across all media and includes sponsorship of next year’s Women’s World Cup, is among the most visible and egregious attempts at “sportswashing” by big oil.
The sports governance nonprofit FairSquare called it “the most dangerous example of fossil fuel advertising and sponsorship the world has ever seen.”
When the deal was announced, 130 women players from 27 nations signed an open letter, decrying the arrangement as a giant “middle finger” to players and fans. The women objected not only to Aramco’s massive contribution to climate change, but also to its relationship to the Saudi regime, with its “track record of human rights violations against women and other minorities, including the LGBTQIA+ community.” Homosexuality is illegal in Saudi Arabia.
In a joint statement about the partnership, FIFA and Aramco said they intend to “leverage the power of football to create impactful social initiatives around the world.”
After the women players published their open letter, FIFA’s only response was a statement that simply said it “values its partnership with Aramco and its other commercial and rights partners.”
The FIFA World Cup 26 website features a page touting its “Sustainability and Human Rights Strategy,” which includes a quote from FIFA’s Gianni Infantino: “Whether we speak about climate, human rights, diseases or disabilities, we are committed to play our part.”
In 2022, FIFA ran messages on websites and social media claiming that the Men’s World Cup in Qatar was the first “fully carbon-neutral World Cup.” Switzerland’s advertising regulator demanded that FIFA cease the “false and misleading” messaging.
“There’s an obvious incentive for big brands to partner with a major sporting event because it creates a positive association in the minds of fans,” said Frank Huisingh, founder of Fossil Free Football, a grassroots organization of football fans working to kick fossil fuel sponsors out of football. “But it’s really dangerous to have a company like Aramco use this kind of soft power to normalize the product and increase the demand for fossil fuels.”
Spin cycle
For decades, fossil fuel companies have been advertisers and sponsors for all kinds of sports events, teams, and leagues—from football, to golf to US football, to Formula 1 racing. The New Weather Institute counts 205 active fossil fuel sports sponsorship deals worth a combined $5.6 billion. There is almost no sport that has been “untouched by fossil fuel cash,” according to the institute. But football leads with 58 active deals, including deals with some of the world’s most popular footballers, such as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, who both have commercial ties to Saudi Arabia.
Fossil Free Football is part of a wider backlash against sportswashing by fans and players. The New Weather Institute polled women’s football fans in Australia, Brazil, the UK and the US and found that 72% felt that FIFA should end the Aramco deal.
Huisingh, a former Dutch diplomat, created Fossil Free Football in 2022 after growing increasingly concerned about the climate crisis and frustrated by the lack of political willpower to take it more seriously. He decided the best way he could make an impact was by trying to stop fossil fuel sponsorships.
“As a football fan, it clicked for me that this could be an opportunity to effect real change,” Huisingh told ImpactAlpha. “We know that most fans are worried about the climate crisis, so it’s important to bring fans together to put this issue on the global agenda and look for strategic opportunities to make our case, like with the 2026 World Cup.”
The organization’s demands for football’s governing bodies are simple: a ban on sponsorship and ad deals with big polluters, and a smarter football calendar that would reduce the carbon pollution from team and fan travel.
David Wheeler, a former player) is the Professional Footballers’ Association’s first “sustainability champion.” In an op-ed in the UK’s Daily Mirror, Wheeler wrote: “We know that to address the climate crisis, we must phase out fossil fuels. The first step is to stop promoting them. We call upon FIFA, other associations and clubs to stop signing deals with fossil fuel companies.”
“As players,” he continued, “we gave a clear signal to FIFA: we don’t want our sport to be used to promote the fossil fuels that threaten the future of our sport.”
In the past few years, players and coaches have raised concerns about extreme heat. During the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament in Charlotte, N.C., for example, temperatures in the stadium reached 99.3 Fahrenheit (37.4 C).
An analysis from Climate Central found that high temperatures (above 82.4°F or 28°C) could affect player performance in 97 of 104 total matches, making it harder for athletes to sprint and potentially forcing a change in tactics.
“I’m concerned that during this year’s World Cup, players will be faced by dangerous heat, made worse by the fossil fuel industry they are obliged to promote. It’s time for FIFA to drop fossil fuel sponsors like Aramco,” said Wheeler.
FIFPRO, the global player’s union, has repeatedly raised climate-related issues with FIFA, including calling for matches to be delayed or postponed if excessive heat makes playing conditions dangerous. For the 2026 Men’s World Cup, players are most concerned about conditions in six open-air stadiums, including in Miami, Fla. and Monterrey, Mexico. “There is definitely a risk of games going ahead in risky environments,” said Huisingh of Fossil Free Football.
Force for good
The 2026 World Cup is an opportunity to keep the issue of FIFA-enabled sportswashing in the public eye. In the runup to June 11, Fossil Free Football launched a trolling campaign that pokes fun at FIFA’s partnership with Aramco. Fake ads for “FootbOil” tanning oil products feature FIFA President Gianni Infantino and US President Donald Trump.
And in a sign that public pressure campaigns can work, FIFA recently reversed its controversial decision to ban World cup fans from bringing refillable water bottles into stadiums, claiming “FIFA is committed to protecting the health and safety of all players, referees, fans, volunteers, and staff.”
Of course, questions of health and safety are sometimes at odds with sponsors like Aramco and Coca-Cola, which signed a partnership with FIFA that made Dasani the only bottled water brand that can be sold inside tournament stadiums.
“Football can inspire global action on climate change in the way it has challenged racism, sexism and other prejudices – but only if FIFA stops hiring out the global game as a billboard promoting the very polluters who are heating the planet,” said Andrew Simms from Cool Down – Sport for Climate Action Network, a collaborator on the Scientists for Global Responsibility study.
“FIFA could use football’s incredible reach to help promote the solutions that keep us safe, from solar panels to train travel to a more plant-based diet,” said Huisingh. “Instead it has chosen to promote the world’s biggest polluter and support its efforts to keep the world hooked on oil. It’s time for FIFA to drop Aramco.”
Impact investors can play a role in making football a force for good, by directly pressuring fossil fuel companies to reduce sportswashing and by supporting organizations like Fossil Free Football and FairSquare. Impact investors also may want to consider sponsoring sports teams, leagues, or events as a way of reaching a more mainstream audience.
Local teams can adopt their own strategies to support sustainability and environmental protection. I root for Vermont Green FC, based in Bernie Sanders’ hometown of Burlington. Vermont Green has partnered with several purpose-driven organizations, including Ben & Jerry’s, Seventh Generation, and Yerba Madre, as part of its mission to build a club “that prioritizes the environment in all business decisions impacting our local and global communities.”
Imagine. The beautiful game can help build a beautiful and just world.
