Add U.S. women’s national team star Megan Rapinoe to the group of players unhappy with FIFA for exploring a partnership with Visit Saudi, the official Saudi Arabia tourism agency, for the 2023 World Cup.
“I think [the sponsorship is] totally inappropriate. If they want to do, like, a 20-year-long women’s empowerment project and in 2043 sponsor a World Cup, that would be something. But I think it kind of just further proves the corruption and the thought process of FIFA,” Rapinoe told reporters Wednesday in Orlando as the USWNT prepared for its first SheBelieves Cup game.
Rapinoe’s teammate Alex Morgan already has offered her own criticism of the partnership.
“I think it’s bizarre that FIFA has looked to have a Visit Saudi sponsorship for the women’s World Cup when I myself, Alex Morgan, would not even be supported and accepted in that country,” she told reporters prior to the SheBelieves Cup, a round-robin tournament in which the USWNT will face Brazil, Japan and Canada.
The decision has brought outcry from host nations Australia and New Zealand, who say they were not consulted in the decision to pursue partnership with Saudi Arabia, who does not have a track record of investing in their women’s program.
“I think…
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