This newsletter goes out during a brief break in EURO 2024 matches. I hope you’ve enjoyed the games so far, even if some of the results or performances might not have not gone the way you wanted.
With the quarter-finals of both the EUROs and the Copa America starting shortly there are still some really big games to come. In the meantime, this is a great opportunity to catch-up with the latest developments in football and climate change news!
Fran
Euro 2024 Round-Up
UEFA figures on the group stages show 1.8m people attended games and 3.3m attended fan zones. They also show a 75% decrease in flights by teams compared with 2016, over 200,000 train tickets sold to fans at reduced prices, and more than 500,000 fan pass users of local public transport. What will impact will this have?
DEKRA has been commissioned to provide the ex-post climate study on the tournament. In Sustainability in Sport: It’s Time to Even the Score, Achim Geiger of DEKRA covers key issues and notes their plan to submit a report to UEFA by the end of September.
More than a game: Tactics for reducing a tournament’s carbon footprint, by Henry Hudson of The Carbon Trust, provides a wide-ranging analysis. It includes an important look at the ‘hidden emissions’ from large numbers of fans travelling to the EUROs without tickets. It will be interesting to see if/how DEKRA deal with this issue.
In Euro 2024 fails to score its most important climate goal, Gavin Mair of Carbon Market Watch also looks a range of key issues. This includes the climate claims being made, and also the need to do more to address flights by fans and players. It notes, for instance, that flights to the German cities hosting Euro 2024 have increased 39% from last year (and in separate news, fans from the USA have led ticket sales on the secondary market).
Travel by train is a key part of the sustainability strategy for the tournament. An NGO has said EURO 2024 teams could slash their emissions by 60% if they cut out flying.
In a separate report, Maximilian Rieger, writing for Deutschlandfunk, provides analysis and interviews on team flights and the role teams can play in being a role model and initiating debate.
Manager of the Dutch team Ronald Koeman thinks the train experiment is worth repeating in future. In other reports, the reliability of German train travel has been called into question, with good overviews here and here.
Steff Wright, Chairman of Gusto and also Newark & Sherwood Utd FC, gives a shout out to EURO 2024 sponsors to use their influence to promote the need for a liveable climate.
In other sponsor news, Felix Keith of The Mirror looks at UEFA downplaying its Qatar Airways deal. Energy Connects looks at how electric car manufacturer, BYD is using its sponsorship of the tournament to promote its brand. Philippe Auclair writes for The Guardian on the commercial side of UEFA’s affairs and how this sits with its environmental ambitions - particularly looking at sponsors, and also the expansion of club tournaments.
On Saturday, the cracking Germany vs Denmark game was suspended for 24 minutes due to adverse weather. The Athletic looks at what happened and notes that ‘Referees have the discretion to halt play if conditions are ever deemed unsafe”. In The Times, leading weather writer, Paul Simons looks at the extreme weather that battered Europe over the weekend, and on the game says:
“It was surprising that the match hadn’t been stopped earlier when the first lightning bolts flashed across the black sky — these were highly dangerous conditions and there have been many incidents in the past of lightning bolts striking football matches, leaving players unconscious and in the worst cases dead on the ground.”
As the events unfolded TV hosts scrambled to work out what the protocols are on temporarily suspending and restarting a game. Although commentators have provided interpretations of the rules, I’ve not been able to pin down the official protocols. If anyone can point to them, please do!
Elsewhere, extreme weather briefly hit the tournament in the group stages too with fan zones closed due to severe weather and Dortmund’s Stadium, hosting Turkey vs Georgia, badly effected before kick-off.
In other news, several sports commentators have called for UEFA to consider expanding the EUROs from 24 to 32 teams arguing this would make for a fairer group stage (for instance here, here, here and here). Notably, the potential environmental impacts do not feature in any of the considerations.
Videos: 1. Football For Forests have restored the classic 'Footy Badgers' from 2004 to help restore tropical forests. 2. WWF are asking fans to unite for nature with a take on the chant ‘Don’t take me home’. Video here …
Copa América Round-Up
Prior to the start of the tournament CONMEBOL, the tournament organisers, issued medical recommendations to prevent exertional heat stroke, saying that “Rising temperatures due to climate change pose significant threats to players”. El Pais also looked at how the tournament was kicking off under an extreme heat alert and how CONMEBOL was monitoring the heat. Elsewhere Fossil Free Football and partners reported on the pollution impacts and also extreme weather.
During last week’s game between Peru vs Canada game, linesman Humberto Panjoj from Guatemala, collapsed in heat put at 101°F. Pictures shared globally show Canada goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau attending to him. The linesman has since been discharged from hospital after being treated for dehydration. Elsewhere
Uruguay defender, Ronald Araujo, was subsituted at half-time in the game against Panama in Miami after feeling the effects of heat and dehyrdation.
AS reports that Brazil have changed their training schedules for the safety of players and staff with peaks of more than 40°C at the highest point.
The same report from AS also says several volunteers at the Ecuador vs Jamaica clash in Las Vegas complained about working conditions after being forced to wear reflective bids in temperatures of up to 42°C.
Players from World Cup 2026 co-hosts Canada spoke up about being upset by conditions and about what needs to change. This included Canada defender Alistair Johnston suggesting there needs to be a harder look at kick-off times. Separately, Henry Bushnell of Yahoo Sports looks at the challenges and tensions the heat will bring for the World Cup, including to fixture scheduling, and says
to some extent, they [FIFA] will have to decide between appeasing broadcasters — who collectively pay FIFA billions of dollars — and keeping participants safe. Which will they choose?
Speaking to ESPN, Professor Doug Casa, an expert in exertional heat stroke, says
"I don't think the governing bodies invest enough into protecting the athletes during the games … Everything's geared around kind of a fan experience and the generating of dollars, but very little is often focused on the health and safety of the actual athletes and the referees like participating in the game."
News from clubs
From the last month or so:
Arsenal teamed up with partners to engage their fans on a three week environmental sustainability campaign.
Brazilian clubs Atlético and Esporte Clube Bahia joined forces with other organisations for a highly visual 'Together for the Planet' initiative.
Bayer Leverkusen agreed a long-term partnership with an LED lighting company as their official premium and sustainability partner.
Blackpool announced a net-zero consultancy as a club sponsor.
Bradford City completed the installation of solar panels at their stadium.
Carlisle United announced a sustainability-focused remodel of Brunton Park, emphasising environmental stewardship
Chelsea players took part in tree-planting and launching a meadow.
Cheltenham Town installed a new bike shelter with support from Green Football Weekend.
Hoffenheim saw their pitch under water due to heavy rain last week.
Grassroots club, Internationale Berlin, are launching a new jersey made to ‘Cradle-to-Cradle’ standards.
Leyton Orient, named an official sustainability partner who will also install solar panels at the stadium.
Liverpool’s work on sustainability is the focus of a Forbes article, which includes a look at its approach to sponsorship. Separately, Liverpool have just entered into multi-year partnership with an international airline.
Manchester City announced a multi-year global partnership with a solar energy company.
Newark & Sherwood United proposed a football shirt celebrating the 2000 plus, B Corps now certified in the UK.
Notts County partnered with a sustainable technology firm to bring reusable cups to their stadium.
Racing Club of Argentina launched several initiatives to reduce the club’s environmental footprint.
Spurs achieved the ISO sustainable event management standard and partnered with a fully recyclable synthetic turf company.
Sutton United partnered with a sustainability app.
Valencia partnered with a major renewable energy supplier to launch multiple initiatives.
Wolves completed a fan travel survey to help understand how they might be able to influence greener travel.
Community Sports Trusts taking part in, and supporting, actions include: Blackburn Rovers, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United, Northampton Town, Sheffield United, Stoke City, Wigan Athletic
Premier League games overseas?
Last month, Liverpool FC’s Chairman suggested that Premier League matches are played around the world, with fans being offered overseas travel to see them. In the last few days, Manchester United’s new front-of-shirt sponsor has said it would make “a lot of sense” for the Premier League and European football to take games into key growth markets such as the United States. These statements follow FIFA announcing, in May, a working group to look into the rules on domestic games being played overseas. There are no further details yet on its members or work.
In other news
Plans are moving forward for the 2024 Climate Cup in Leh, Kashmir. More on the inaugural 2023 Climate Cup are here.
The U19 Euro 2024 in Northern Ireland in July is to have a focus on sustainability.
The BBC reports a groundsman with decades of experience saying he fears climate change could be affecting pitches.
Interesting research on how football rivalries could boost recycling at stadiums.
A useful list of football boot reuse organisations and donation schemes in the UK & Ireland.
The Brazilian Football Federation (CBF) says the Brazilian national team could play one of its games in Porto Alegre to help the State after the floods.
Football for Future have been speaking at Glastonbury Festival about all things football, culture and social change.
Awards: Brighton and Wolves were winners at the Football Business Awards. Real Betis’ Forever Green programme, held its Second Gala in early June, with participation and awards across all sports. Football boot manufacturer, Sokito, won Sustainability Gold at The Drum Awards for Marketing.
Joanna Czutkowna looks at how to encourage fans to shop more sustainably while still promoting a new kit.
The Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, which will host the Copa America final on July 14, has received LEED Gold certification from the US Green Building Council.
The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and FA Wales put out communications for World Environment Day on 5th June.
Players
Spurs footballer, Amy James-Turner, speaks to Talksport about wide-reaching concerns of women's football players around climate change in the industry.
Heloisa De Souza profiles Morten Thorsby - The Good Footballer
Green Games encouraged me to fight climate change, says Emma Ilijoski, a defender for Canberra United in a FIFPRO player profile.
Elsewhere in Sport
There was global coverage for the Rings of Fire II report on Extreme Heat at the Paris Olympics.
A useful video from PBS News on How climate extremes are changing the world of sports
Emerging Risks looks at how the climate is shaking up our summer of sport.
How to cut emissions from ‘big sport’? by Dialogue Earth, looks at the challenges of cutting emissions from major sporting events.
An International Summit on Sport and Sustainable Development takes place on 25 July 2024 in Paris. It will involve public bodies, NGOs and members of civil society.
The newsletter will be back again soon. And as ever corrections, comments, suggestions for content, and proposals to write guest posts are welcome at any time!
Fran James (he/him)
Football and Climate Change Newsletter
footballandclimatechange@gmail.com
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