As Iran‘s World Cup match with Belgium kicked off on Sunday afternoon, digital ads around the SoFi Stadium field in Los Angeles flashed the logo of Aramco, the Saudi Arabian state-owned oil giant. Similar advertising appeared on sideline boards during Iran’s World Cup opener against New Zealand in Santa Clara, Calif., when a Visa ad gave way to the Aramco logo exactly 60 seconds into the match. The Aramco messaging was also visible when Iran scored the tying goal in the second half of that 2-2 draw with the Kiwis, and throughout portions of Iran’s 0-0 draw with Belgium.

Aramco is one of FIFA’s top sponsors, a group that will collectively commit nearly $2.7 billion to advertise across the 104 matches in this biggest-ever World Cup. Its presence at a game featuring Iran’s national team is particularly notable: The two countries have been regional rivals for decades, and earlier this year Iran drone attacks targeted multiple Aramco facilities, including its largest refinery. And in March, during the first month of the U.S. war against Iran, The New York Times reported that Saudi leader Mohammed bin Salman urged President Donald Trump to continue hostilities against Iran as Trump mulled winding down the war, though the Saudis denied this was the case.

The odd commercial contrast highlights the geopolitical tensions at a global sporting event of this size—Iran is playing all of its World Cup group stage games in the U.S., the country that initially started the fighting alongside Israel back in February.

It also shows a new reality of modern sports marketing and financing, where sovereign wealth funds and state-backed entities, particularly those from the Middle East, have become omnipresent across the biggest events in almost every major sport. Those deals can often create broader social tensions, particularly around war, human rights violations and terrorism.

Aramco declined to comment on the sponsorship, or whether the company had any discussion with FIFA about its logo appearing alongside the Iran team. A rep for Iran’s soccer federation didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Iran’s World Cup has created hardships for its athletes, with the team competing at U.S. stadiums but using Tijuana, Mexico, as a training base camp instead of an originally planned location in Arizona. After the team tied New Zealand 2-2 last week in its opening match, coaches and players complained about their treatment, which included being forced to leave the U.S. immediately after the match.

 “Our team is the most oppressed one in the whole World Cup,” head coach Amir Ghalenoei said.

“Everything is like a disaster, actually,” striker Mehdi Taremi added.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who repeatedly advocated for Iran’s inclusion in the tournament, reportedly told the team he would try to help smooth out the team’s logistics. The initial agreement between Iran and the U.S. to end their war, which was signed Wednesday, does not appear to have changed the soccer team’s status; Andrew Giuliani of the White House World Cup task force said over the weekend that travel restrictions will remain in place.

Saudi Arabia has expanded its relationship with FIFA over the last few years. Aramco announced its four-year FIFA sponsorship deal in April 2024; later that same year, Saudi Arabia was named the host of the 2034 men’s World Cup. PIF, the kingdom’s main sovereign fund, has separately sponsored both the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup and this summer’s tournament in North America.

Earlier this month, another deal was announced, this time to make Aramco the name partner of FIFA’s official rankings. The official press release from the Saudi government said the spending coincides with “the rapid development of the sports sector in line with Saudi Vision 2030 targets.”

But the kingdom’s commitment to sports has shifted in some high-profile ways over the past six months, a stretch that coincided with the ongoing fighting across the region. PIF is winding down its funding of LIV Golf after spending more than $5 billion. Via various entities, the kingdom recently sold a 70% stake in a domestic soccer team, ended a decade-long snooker deal after just two years and decided not to continue hosting the WTA Tour finals.

Sportico wrote earlier this year about how the Iran war had also potentially cooled interest from sovereign funds looking at purchasing NBA Europe franchises.

The war started on Feb. 28 with coordinated air strikes executed by the both the U.S. and Israel, and it quickly spread across the Middle East as Iran retaliated by attacking energy installation of local U.S. allies like Qatar and Saudi Arabia. On March 2, according to multiple news sites, Iranian drones attacked Aramco’s largest refinery at Ras Tanura on the Persian Gulf. Debris from the interception of the drones, according to Bloomberg, forced operations at the facility to be halted. A few days later, Aramco’s Berri oilfield was target by a drone, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Aramco doesn’t appear to have commented publicly about either incident, but it was not the first time Iran had targeted the energy company’s infrastructure. In 2019, for example, Yemen’s Houthi rebel struck two oil processing centers—one owned by Aramco—in an attack that the U.S. government blamed on Iran. Wars have lingered in the background of World Cups before, perhaps most notably in 1982, when the British government considered pulling out of the event amid the Falklands War with Argentina.