World Cup u-turns on sponsorship deal to the delight of Hearts midfielder Ciara Grant

FIFA dropped the plans to make Visit Saudi a major sponsor of this year’s Women’s World Cup, much to the delight of Ciara Grant.

The potential sponsorship received a great deal of backlash from people involved with women’s football due to Saudi Arabia’s poor human rights record. The Middle Eastern country only formed a women’s football team in 2019 after allowing female spectators for the first time in 2017.

The sponsorship saga has been among many other controversial moments in the build-up to this year’s World Cup including the appointment of Supermodel Adriana Lima as the tournament’s ambassador. However, the Republic of Ireland international Grant is pleased that FIFA are listening to people’s concerns and making changes.

“It's a difficult one because obviously the women’s game growing they are looking for sponsors,” the midfielder told the Edinburgh Evening News. “Unfortunately some of these places have the money. If they stick to the message that they are trying to send out with the women’s game and listen to the players and listen to the fans. Dropping the sponsor from Saudi Arabia shows that they are listening. I know there is a lot of pressure because to run a World Cup and host one is a huge financial cost but I am glad that they did.

Ciara Grant helped the Republic of Ireland overcome Scotland in the World Cup playoff last October. Credit: Niall Carson

“The Supermodel thing is just unfortunate, probably somebody in marketing who is used to doing things like that. Again, it is a learning curve as well, the game is getting bigger, the World Cup every year is getting bigger, there are 40 teams this year. I’m doing everything I can to get into that squad and I’m looking forward to the summer.”

The 29-year-old will be hoping to travel to New Zealand and Australia this summer as the Republic of Ireland enters its first-ever World Cup. The Girls in Green beat Scotland to earn their place at the tournament and have been handed a tough group against Australia, Canada and Nigeria. Grant hopes that her team can get out of the group and qualify for the knockouts.

“In the World Cup, anything can happen,” Grant added. “We have a very very tough group with some top competitors. It’s just going game by game and if we can get something from one game we are in a good position to quality.”