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- Motorsport estimated to have earned US$2.19bn from 40 partnerships
- Saudi oil giant Aramco spends US$1.3bn on sports sponsorships
Fossil fuel companies currently spend at least US$5.6 billion on sports sponsorship deals, according to a report from the New Weather Institute (NWI).
Across 205 active deals, motorsport was found to have benefited the most, earning an estimated US$2.19 billion from 40 partnerships struck with oil and gas companies. Soccer was ranked second, amassing US$994 million from 59 deals, while cricket, American football and cycling all raked in over US$450 million from their respective sponsorships.
NWI found that Saudi Arabian oil giant Aramco was the biggest spender, with US$1.3 billion distributed across ten arrangements with the likes of Fifa and Formula One. Petrochemical firm Ineos spent the second-most money, investing US$777 million across seven partnerships, while Shell and TotalEnergies forked out US$470 million and US$340 million respectively.
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The report also points to the involvement of individual athletes, with the likes of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury all mentioned to have been ‘successfully recruited’ to spend time in the Middle East as part of sponsorship deals. Some athletes are also said to be encouraged to align their social media with supporting fossil fuel companies, including Kenyan marathon legend Eliud Kipchoge, who is endorsed by Ineos.
The report adds that corporations are using sport to ‘improve their brand image’ in spite of calls for greater climate action. It describes the use of sponsorships as both misleading to the public and as a hindrance to decarbonisation efforts.
Ahead of the United Nations’ (UN) Summit of the Future later this month, the report proposes five recommendations for sports organisations and governing bodies. This includes introducing bans on sponsorships from fossil fuel companies, greater due diligence on companies’ record on climate change, and greater efforts to find more sustainable sources of funding.
Andrew Simms, co-director of the NWI, said: “Oil companies who are delaying climate action and pouring more fuel on the fire of global heating, are using big tobacco’s old playbook and trying to pass themselves off as patrons of sport.
“But air pollution from fossil fuels and the extreme weather of a warming world threaten the very future of athletes, fans and events ranging from the Winter Olympics to World Cups. If sport is to have a future it needs to clean itself of dirty money from big polluters and stop promoting its own destruction.”
SportsPro says…
Fossil fuel firms have long been a major source of revenue for sports organisations, given their extreme wealth and profits. Yet with calls for greater climate action growing louder than ever before, the case for continuing to accept money from such firms is only getting weaker.
The true impact of sports partnerships on legitimising the oil and gas industries remains unclear. Details around most deals, as noted by the NWI, are not publicly disclosed, including the exact amount of spending, the duration, and if any of the sports bodies impose conditions.
But the millions spent by the likes of Aramco and Shell make sport more reliant on the industry and afford more soft power to fossil fuel titans. NWI’s report warns the presence of such companies allows them to improve their reputations and also extends this to oil and gas-rich countries, particularly those in the Middle East, who spend heavily on sport while being obstructive in global climate action efforts.
The NWI believes that sport could make a major contribution to climate action if it can stop promoting major polluters. But given the longstanding links between the industry, fossil fuel-rich countries, and oil and gas corporations, this will be difficult to achieve without greater transparency and more accountability.
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