Frank Huisingh runs Fossil Free Football, an organisation established to challenge the influence of fossil-fuel companies and petro-states in the world game. In this interview, Huisingh details what Fossil Free Football has been doing since its inception, such as reports on how Saudi entities like Aramco and heavily fund FIFA, and how Newcastle Unite is majority owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund.
What is your background and backstory?
I have always been a football fan and an Ajax fan. I worked in the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during which time, I was sent to Morocco.
I became increasingly concerned about climate issues and saw a link with football. UEFA had sponsorship with Gazprom in the Champions League. Meanwhile major airlines were sponsoring big clubs and it was an issue that was rarely mentioned and there were not a lot of campaigns about it.
So, I got the idea of a developing a public campaign about the issue.
How long have you worked for Fossil Free Football?
I started Fossil Free Football in the summer before the 2022-3 season, after I got unpaid leave from the Ministry.
What does Fossil Free Football do?
We are trying to draw attention to the fossil fuel industry and how it uses football to promote its product and maintain the fossil fuel industry.
We have produced reports and press releases about the ways that the fossil fuel industry sponsors UEFA, FIFA and big clubs, and we try to get clubs to drop fossil fuel sponsorship.
At FIFA, Infantino has a private jet, which he flies around the world on, which was a gift from the Qatari government.
FIFA also has major sponsorship from Aramco, the Saudi Oil company.
What are your views on the ownership of Newcastle United by the Saudi Public Investment Fund?
I think the ownership feeds into the Saudis’ soft power strategy. This strategy has a few goals. There is sports washing to distract attention from human rights abuses, but the Saudis also want to protect fossil fuel interests and have clear climate goals; to slow the transition to renewables and keep the world hooked on oil.
At the last COP climate conference, the Saudis (along with the US and Russia) led the obstruction to stronger measures on reducing fossil fuel consumption. The Saudis were the worst at these tactics at the COP and they do the most to block progress; they know all the rules, all the tricks and are the worst.
The Saudis need both hard power and soft power on the international stage and the soft power sees the regime involved in sport.
Football gives the states like Saudi Arabia soft power, giving them a seat at the table and makes people associate their state with football, rather than climate disasters, executions or death sentences for tweeting a message.
It is important that fans push back. They will care more about the club than the owners do and it is important that they say that this is not the club they want.
I also get the feeling that Newcastle United is not a priority from what I understand about the lack of investment. The Saudis are much more interested in FIFA and the World Cup, while any investment in the club and football more broadly depends on the price of oil and demand for oil is going down, so Newcastle United’s investment future is dependent on an unreasonable and unsustainable source of income.
Can you tell me about successes?
We have been getting players involved and working behind the scenes to get more players, male and female, involved and some have spoken out about the Aramco deal with FIFA. More female players […] have spoken out than males.
We were also involved in a case against FIFA, where they were found to be misleading when they called the 2022 Qatar World Cup carbon neutral.
Can you say something about plans for the future and working with others?
We want to continue campaigning about the deal with ARAMCO and the Saudis and FIFA.
Our biggest allies are the people from the Badvertising campaign and we draw inspiration from how attention was drawn to the advertisers of tobacco and the harm that it does, while fossil fuels also do harm.
