Aramco and FIFA Announce Global Partnership

FILES) This picture shows Aramco tower at the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) in Riyadh on April 16, 2023. (Photo by Fayez Nureldine / AFP)
FILES) This picture shows Aramco tower at the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) in Riyadh on April 16, 2023. (Photo by Fayez Nureldine / AFP)
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Aramco and FIFA Announce Global Partnership

FILES) This picture shows Aramco tower at the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) in Riyadh on April 16, 2023. (Photo by Fayez Nureldine / AFP)
FILES) This picture shows Aramco tower at the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) in Riyadh on April 16, 2023. (Photo by Fayez Nureldine / AFP)

Saudi Aramco signed a four-year global partnership with professional football association FIFA, according to an Aramco statement.

The company becomes FIFA’s major worldwide partner exclusive in the energy category, with sponsorship rights for multiple events including the highly anticipated FIFA World Cup 26™ and FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027™, said the statement on Thursday.

The agreement, which runs until the end of 2027, builds on a shared commitment to innovation and development, and will combine football’s unique global reach with Aramco’s history of championing innovation and community engagement.

“Through this partnership with FIFA, we aim to contribute to football development and harness the power of sport to make an impact around the globe,” said Aramco President and CEO Amin H. Nasser. “It reflects our ambition to enable vibrant communities and extends our backing of sport as a platform for growth.”

"Our existing relationship with the Saudi football team Al-Qadsiah, our support for women’s golf through the Aramco Team Series, and our backing of F1 in schools each demonstrate the possibilities of such partnerships to create pathways for opportunity, positively impact society, and promote development at the grassroots level,” he said.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino said the partnership will assist the soccer body to successfully deliver its flagship tournaments over the next four years.

“Aramco has a strong track record of supporting world-class events, but also a focus on developing grassroots sport initiatives. We look forward to collaborating with them on a variety of initiatives over the coming years,” he added.

Aramco also intends to work with FIFA to drive innovation, identifying opportunities to deploy the company’s expertise and technologies in the delivery of football events globally. This includes initiatives that aim to provide new and innovative ways for football fans to engage with FIFA’s events, the statement said.



Norris Feels ‘Nowhere Near’ His Best as Formula 1 Title Contest Heats up Inside McLaren 

Formula One F1 - Bahrain Grand Prix - Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain - April 13, 2025 McLaren's Oscar Piastri poses on the podium after winning the Bahrain Grand Prix alongside third placed McLaren's Lando Norris and McLaren team principal Andrea Stella. (Reuters)
Formula One F1 - Bahrain Grand Prix - Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain - April 13, 2025 McLaren's Oscar Piastri poses on the podium after winning the Bahrain Grand Prix alongside third placed McLaren's Lando Norris and McLaren team principal Andrea Stella. (Reuters)
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Norris Feels ‘Nowhere Near’ His Best as Formula 1 Title Contest Heats up Inside McLaren 

Formula One F1 - Bahrain Grand Prix - Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain - April 13, 2025 McLaren's Oscar Piastri poses on the podium after winning the Bahrain Grand Prix alongside third placed McLaren's Lando Norris and McLaren team principal Andrea Stella. (Reuters)
Formula One F1 - Bahrain Grand Prix - Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain - April 13, 2025 McLaren's Oscar Piastri poses on the podium after winning the Bahrain Grand Prix alongside third placed McLaren's Lando Norris and McLaren team principal Andrea Stella. (Reuters)

Lando Norris may be top of the F1 standings, but he feels like he's driving "nowhere near" his best and can't work out why.

After placing third Sunday at the Bahrain Grand Prix — won by his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri — Norris said he felt far more confident last year, when he lost out on the drivers' title to Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

"I’m confident that I have everything I need and I’ve got what it takes," Norris said. "I have no doubt about that, that I’m good enough, but something is just not clicking with me in the car."

Norris, who qualified sixth for Sunday's race, saw Piastri close to within three points of him in the standings.

"As soon as you're not gelling (with the car), then you're going to be in issues, and that's what I have at the moment," Norris said.

Even though he's still leading and won the season-opening Grand Prix in Australia last month, Norris said he hasn't felt comfortable all year with McLaren's car — widely considered the fastest on the grid.

Last year, "I knew every single corner, everything that was going to happen with the car, how it was going to happen. I felt on top of the car. This year could not have felt more opposite so far," Norris said.

"Even in Australia, I won the race but never felt comfortable, never felt confident. The car was just mega and that’s helping me get out of a lot of problems at the minute, but I’m just nowhere near the capability that I have, which hurts to say."

Norris and Piastri combined to help McLaren win the constructor title in 2024, the team's first since 1998.

Teammate battles which shaped F1

The years when F1 has been dominated by a single team have produced some of the most bitter rivalries, as McLaren witnessed in the late 1980s with a feud between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.

More recently, the relationship between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg turned sour during their championship fight at Mercedes in 2016.

Norris and Piastri are keeping things civil, though there were awkward moments last year when Norris was asked to make way for his teammate in a race.

McLaren has faced tests from other teams, with Verstappen winning in Japan last week for Red Bull and Mercedes' George Russell competing with Norris and Piastri on Sunday. Still, the pace of the other teams seems to be fluctuating from race to race, and McLaren's isn't. The gap of 58 points on the constructor standings to second-place Mercedes after just four races is vast.

"We haven't had a consistent challenger week-in, week-out," Piastri, a 24-year-old Australian, said. "As long as we have the best car, it's going to be tight between Lando and I."