Fossil fuel firms sponsor €5bn in global ‘sportswashing’ deals

In 2023, Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, said: 'If sportswashing is going to increase my GDP by 1%, then we’ll continue doing sportswashing.' File photo: AP/Alastair Grant

Fossil fuel companies pumped at least $5.6bn (€5bn) of sponsorship money into motorsports, football, golf and even snow sports in an effort to “buy social licence to operate”, according to a new report.

Almost no major spectator sport remains untouched by oil and gas money, according to research carried out by the New Weather Institute (NWI), a climate thinktank, which traced more than 200 sponsorship deals between sports teams and the industry.