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Revista Brasileira de Atividade Física e Saúde
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Sumário
Theoretical essays on physical activity and health • Rev. Bras. Ativ. Fis. Saúde 31 • 2026 • https://doi.org/10.12820/rbafs.31e0438i linkcopy

Open-access “Be Active”: contradictions in the partnership between Fédération Internationale de Football Association and World Health Organization

AuthorshipSCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

ABSTRACT

In 2022, the partnership between the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the “Be Active” campaign, which seeks to encourage physical activity, especially among children and adolescents. While large institutions play an important role in disseminating health initiatives, this text reflects on the contradictions regard-ing their commitments to health protection, which are primarily driven by economic factors. The main contradiction lies in the contrast between FIFA’s historical relationship with the unhealthy commodity industries that have sponsored its mega-events for over 50 years, and the WHO’s efforts to recommend more assertive policies to protect children and adolescents from the impacts of food marketing, as well as its support for the debate on the commercial determinants of health. The text also reflects on issues in other domains, such as ethnicity, race, and politics. Finally, based on these points of contradiction regarding the commitments of FIFA and WHO to health protection, which are primarily driven by economic prerogatives, it is worth noting, from the perspective of promoting physical activity and, consequently, health, that this partnership is unsustainable. It is recommended that the WHO distance itself from entities that, in their practices, do not prioritize health and equity.

Keywords:
Health Education; World Health Organization; Conflict of interest; Soccer.

RESUMO

Da parceria entre a Federação Internacional de Futebol (FIFA) e a Organização Mundial da Saúde (OMS), em 2022, foi lançada a campanha Be Active (“Seja Ativo”), que busca incentivar a prática de atividades físicas, especialmente entre crianças e adolescentes. Mesmo que as instituições de grande porte tenham papel importante na disseminação de ações em saúde, o presente texto traz reflexões sobre as contradições quanto aos seus compromissos com a proteção à saúde, que são motivadas, sobretudo, por aspectos econômicos. A principal delas está no contraste entre as relações históricas entre a FIFA e as indústrias de commodities insalubres, que patrocinam seus megaeventos há mais de 50 anos e os esforços da OMS em recomendar a formulação de políticas mais assertivas para pro-teger crianças e adolescentes dos impactos do marketing alimentar, bem como seu apoio ao debate sobre os determinantes comerciais da saúde. O texto também traz reflexões sobre questões de outros domínios, como o étnico-racial e o político. Por fim, a partir destes pontos de contradição quanto aos compromissos da FIFA e da OMS em relação a proteção à saúde, que são permeadas, sobretudo, por prerrogativas econômicas, cabe indicar, sob o enfoque da promoção da atividade física, e, por consequência, da saúde, que esta parceria não se sustenta, recomendando-se que a OMS se afaste de entidades que, em suas práticas, não prezam pela saúde e equidade.

Palavras-chave:
Educação em saúde; Organização Mundial da Saúde; Conflito de interesses; Futebol.

From the partnership between the Fédération Interna-tionale de Football Association (FIFA) and the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2022, the Be Active campaign was launched with the aim of encouraging physical activity, especially among children and adoles-cents1. Despite the important role of broad institutions in campaigns of this nature, this text reflects on the con-tradictions in their commitment to health protection, which are motivated primarily by economic factors.

First, it is important to position football as a multi-dimensional phenomenon, which involves, in addition to the sporting aspect, cultural, social, economic, and political elements2. This complexity largely explains the strong influence of FIFA mega-events on a global scale, which provide excellent opportunities for disseminating messages and brands. At the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup (CWC), held in the United States of America be-tween June and July 2025, Be Active messages such as ‘Kids need to be active for 60 minutes per day’ and ‘Get moving. Stay active. Play Football’ were repeatedly dis-played on advertising boards at all 63 matches.

However, behind the apparent concern, the partner-ship between FIFA-WHO is riddled with contradic-tions, where discourses about protecting health diverge from institutional actions due to economic issues, es-pecially. The main one lies in the contrast between the historical relationship between FIFA and unhealthy commodity industries (e.g., whose main products cause significant damage to health, such as sugary drinks, to-bacco, alcohol, and ultra-processed foods)3, which have sponsored its mega-events for over 50 years, and the WHO’s efforts to recommend the formulation of more assertive policies to protect children and adolescents from the impacts of food marketing4.

In addition to the products of these commodity industries, which are directly associated with an increased risk of chronic diseases that constitute the greatest burden of morbidity and mortality globally and account for most premature mortality5, the WHO also denounces the commercial practices of these in-dustries4, which increase demand and consumption of products, and thus position themselves as a significant issue in the debate on the commercial determinants of health, whose impacts can amplify health harms and inequalities at the global level3.

Contrary to the movement that culminated in the development of an policy on tobacco, which, among other advances, provides for restrictions on advertising and its consumption in football stadiums, FIFA accepts advertising from brands of sugary and alcoholic bever-ages, which, in turn, approach football mega-events not only with the aim of disseminating their brands on a large scale, but also for what is known as sportswash-ing, taking advantage of all the positive mobilization of society around the sporting phenomenon1. Similarly, al-though it is not the objective of this text - but a relevant topic for future analysis - it is also worth noting the presence of betting houses at FIFA mega-events, as ob-served in the CWC. It is a central contradiction to allow these companies to sponsor sports that are their main objects of betting and, in addition, it is worth highlight-ing sports betting as a growing phenomenon that is as-sociated with various negative health indicators6.

Even with the intensification of pressure from academics7 and social movements for FIFA to break ties with the commodity industries, more specifically sug-ary and alcoholic beverages, through worldwide cam-paigns such as “Kick Big Soda Out,” their withdrawal from mega-sporting events does not seem to be a sim-ple task, considering the economic power that allows them to reach the high sponsorship quotas proposed by the main football entity. On the other hand, these multi-million-dollar quotas reveal another important issue related to the economic aspect, since FIFA posi-tions itself, in its statutes, as a non-profit organization8.

In addition, the commodity industries also exert strong lobbying power with government decision-makers, which allows them a high degree of in-terference in related policies. In Brazil, for example, Bill 4,910, introduced in April 2016, which aimed to regulate the advertising of high-sugar beverages in na-tional sporting competitions, is being revived. Subject to amendments and criticism, the bill was withdrawn by its author in August 2017. The unfavorable stance of the Brazilian Olympic Committee on Bill9 is an indi-cation of the difficulty in keeping these industries away from sporting mega-events.

Besides the economic issue, the CWC also brings with it a contradiction in the anti-racist theme. Al-though FIFA has the No Discrimination campaign10, which culminated in the creation and adoption of anti-racist protocols, the attempt at political and eco-nomic alignment with the United States of America may have been an impediment to the dissemination of these materials in the CWC matches11. And this is not a one-off alignment, since the US (in partnership with its North American counterparts, Canada and Mexi-co) will also host matches of the Men’s World Cup in 2026. On the other hand, in the line of health protec-tion, the WHO, by understanding that race / ethnicity constitute determinants of health, brings a strong an-ti-racist message about health equity12.

And, as a final point of contradiction, the WHO’s support for an institution that has a troubled history in other spheres is also questioned, such as in cases of cor-ruption13 and approaches to theocratic regimes, which seek, through sportswashing, to divert attention from the number of accidents and deaths involving migrant workers, corruption, discriminatory policies against the LGBTQIA+ community and environmental dam-age14. The WHO has been criticized for incorporating neoliberal values, which compromise its credibility, as it ends up being, in some way, hostage to the interests of its partners, who are not always aligned with visions and practices focused on the public welfare15.

Finally, based on these points of contradiction re-garding the commitments of FIFA and the WHO in relation to health protection, which are permeated, above all, by economic prerogatives, it is worth indi-cating, from the perspective of promoting physical ac-tivity, and, consequently, health, that this partnership is unsustainable, and it is recommended that the WHO distance itself from entities that, in their practices, do not value health and equity.

Declaration regarding the use of artificial intelligence tools in the article writing process

This work did not make use of generative Artificial Intelligence or AI-assisted technologies.

Availability of research data and other materials

The contents underlying the research text are contained in the manuscript.

Preprint

The manuscript was previously published as a preprint.

Server name Preprints: Scielo Preprints

Preprint Doi: https://doi.org/10.1590/SciELOPreprints.12626

References

Edited by

  • Editor in Chief
    Átila Alexandre Trapé University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil.
  • Section editor
    Debora Bernardo Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.

The reviews of this article were originally conducted in Portuguese. This version has been translated using ChatGPT and subsequently reviewed by the Chief Editors.

About the reviewerSCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Reviewer A

  • Was any indication of plagiarism observed in the manuscript?

    No

  • Did the authors provide clarification regarding the ethical procedures adopted for conducting the re-search?

    Partially

Comments to the author

Dear authors, How are you?

  • The proposal of the manuscript is interesting and original. However, I believe it is necessary to reflect further on the elements presented and reconsid-er the objectives. Many topics were added, but I missed a logical and well-paced progression. I also felt the absence of a methodological path delimit-ing the theoretical essay.

  • I have left some comments with the intention of supporting a critical reflection on the text and strengthening it.

  • Best regards!

Comments in the text

Title:

  • Line 4: I suggest reconsidering whether it is worth keeping the two acronyms FIFA and WHO or writing them in full. When convergences and di-vergences are mentioned, in which area or domain would these be? Throughout the manuscript it be-comes clear that they relate to factors and some de-terminants of health. However, I believe this could already be delimited in the title.

Resumo/Abstract:

  • Page 1, line 12: I suggest using the term in Portu-guese and including an additional sentence to conceptualize what the “Be Active” campaign is.

  • Page 1, lines 12-14: The objective is broad in terms of the partnership itself between the two institu-tions. Throughout the manuscript, this is also re-flected. I suggest reformulating the objective based on the text and on some of the relationships estab-lished between the parties. Perhaps by narrowing it down a little, the manuscript may be able to present elements that actually meet this objective.

  • Page 1, line 18: I see this as a key factor of the manuscript: commercial and social determinants of health and how this is involved in the Be Ac-tive campaign, which encourages a more active and healthy lifestyle, and how this may diverge from the promotion and presence of these industries around sports environments.

  • Page 1, line 19: Other aspects and other assump-tions are introduced. I suggest that the objective should be more solid in its aim, methodological framework, and conclusion. As it stands, it seems somewhat vague.

  • Page 1, line 20: This section also reflects the extend-ed manuscript. I leave the authors with the follow-ing reflection: Does the text aim to address phys-ical activity, an active and healthy lifestyle, health conditions, social or commercial determinants of health, or equity? Not that these are separate within sociocultural relationships, but in the manuscript they become mixed and somewhat confusing, and at the same time the main message the text intends to convey is not evident.

Main text

  • Page 2, line 1: I suggest starting the manuscript by introducing what Be Active is.

  • Page 2, line 12: I also suggest conceptualizing it and providing examples.

Final Decision

  • Major revisions required

  • peer review recommendation: major-revision

History

  • review-report-received
    29 Dec 2025

Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    29 June 2026
  • Date of issue
    2026

History

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This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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