Swedish national team manager Marika Domanski Lyfors critical of Fifa's choice to let Saudi Arabia sponsor the 2023 World Cup

According to information provided to The Athletic, "Visit Saudi" will join giants such as Adidas, Coca-Cola and Visa in sponsoring the championship this summer, where Sweden hopes to go far after silver at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

"We are very disappointed that the Australian Football Association has not been consulted in this matter," writes the Australian Football Association in a statement.

“Shocked and disappointed”

The New Zealand Football Association issued its own statement.

"If this information is correct, we are shocked and disappointed that we were not asked," writes the union.

"Feels very strange"

The Swedish Football Association's national team manager Marika Domanski Lyfors is not surprised by the WC hosts' strong reactions.

- I understand both Australia's and New Zealand's thoughts, that they are upset.

Because it feels a little strange that they are bringing it up now, she tells SVT Sport.

What do you think is strange?

- We have just left a World Cup in Qatar with everything that happened around it and so on, so it feels like you should have thought about it and learned something from it, I think.

It feels very strange.

Sweden can try to influence

Several Swedish players spoke out critically against Fifa placing the men's WC 2022 in Qatar.

No one has officially commented on the Saudi sponsorship.

Domanski Lyfors has not spoken to any of the Swedish players about this, but knows what they are thinking.

- There is probably no doubt about what they think and where they stand on this issue, given everything they have stated their position for before, so I am probably quite sure what they think, she says.

Will you from the Swedish side act or mark in any way?

- We usually always try to influence things, and in this case it is a decision that Fifa will make and once we see what kind of decision it is, we will of course have a little influence.

But it is probably above all to take a stand on what this is really about.

Neither Fifa nor Visit Saudi have officially confirmed the reports, but when asked by Reuters about the criticism, Saudi Football Association Secretary General Ibrahim Alkassim did not deny the reports.

- We are a football association so we are not involved in that.

But basically it is Saudi Arabia opening up and extending a hand to the world to show what Saudi Arabia can do, he said.