Action, reaction, comms, kits and more

Round-up #30

Hello, hello,

This round-up of developments from around the world covers the last month or so. It goes out as news has just been announced by the Premier League and The FA on grassroots football and the FA Cup format. I’ve given a short initial reaction below.

Would more of these short reactions to breaking news sent to your inbox as they come out be useful or not? Or is it better to keep them as part of a round-up? Drop me a line with any thoughts.

Separately, nearly all big clubs in the UK have now put out their annual emissions reporting. This gives us up to 4 years of data for some clubs, and I hope to take a look at that in a further post soon. If you know a bit about emissions reporting and/or data analysis and can help out on that, drop me a line!

Right, let’s tuck into the round-up …

Fran

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Action stations!

“We encourage everyone involved in European football to support organisations, either in their local communities or nationally, who are committed to climate action and advocacy” says UEFA in a new statement.

Now over to all football bodies and clubs to follow suit with similar statements.

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Reaction

A quick view on today’s announcement that the Premier League and The FA have agreed to increase support for the grassroots game and make changes to the FA Cup format

Grassroots football is facing significant challenges from extreme weather (see the ‘Impacts’ section below, for instance). No mention is made in today’s announcement about support to adapt to a changing climate when more action is clearly needed. Further clarification on whether there is any extra funding for environmental sustainability would be welcome. Alongside this, a full assessment is needed of the investment required to ensure the resilience of grassroots football and help it reduce emissions.

Separately, the announcement says that the professional football calendar will start a week later. This must not lead to a further increase in carbon-intensive pre-season international travel for friendly matches. There are already strong environmental arguments for clubs to be scaling these back.

Finally, the decision to end FA Cup Replays comes at a time when the European football calendar is expanding, and there is renewed talk of Premier League games taking place overseas. It appears to represent an increased prioritisation by big clubs of higher-emitting international club games over domestic football matches.

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Impacts

"It would be foolish and wrong for us not to consider doing things differently". So says Noel Mooney, Chief Executive of the Football Association of Wales (FAW). Mr Mooney was speaking to the BBC about whether grassroots football in Wales should switch to being played in the summer due to extreme weather. Alongside this, Senedd Constituency Member, Mike Hedges MS, has set out four options for the future of the football calendar in Wales in the face of climate impacts.

In England, the FA has granted an extension to the Northern League season after previous calls to do so. The statement says it is due to “exceptional circumstances”, though with extreme weather becoming more frequent, it seems hard to call this year ‘exceptional’.

Elsewhere in England, the Cornwall FA has taken the unusual step of publicly speaking out on weather disruptions saying:

“we have formally expressed our concerns to the FA regarding the deadlines for FA affiliated leagues .. We have raised concerns for the wellbeing and safety of both players, officials and volunteers and the impact that these deadlines put on teams, clubs, leagues, and facilities"

Elsewhere in the world, Dubai has experienced a year’s worth of rain in one day. The rain in the UAE led the ProLeague to postpone all games on Tuesday, including an Asian Champions League semi-final match.

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Just Transitions. Pt.1

Ronna Lee, Samoa Football Association CEO:

"I think the challenge is places like Samoa and all the small island developing states, contribute 1% to the issue of climate change, but we are experiencing the most impact. So the industrialised nations and especially our development partners, and those giving us the funds to address climate change, I think they have to really take full responsibility of their contribution to the impacts of climate change that small island developing states are experiencing".

Ronna Lee was speaking at a FIFA-hosted workshop with Oceania region members that focussed on climate change. The insightful video interviews in this link have the heads of national FA’s talking about the impacts that they are already seeing. This is the first post that FIFA has put out on climate issues in quite some time. While the insights are perspectives are useful, the meeting outcomes are unclear, as is any further climate action by FIFA more generally.

Just Transitions. Pt.2

In January 2024 Tata Steel announced that almost 3,000 jobs would be lost at Port Talbout Steelworks as part of plans to close the two blast furnaces and replace them with an electric arc furnace.

‘FORGED: Football in Steeltown’ tells the story of how the football scene is stepping up to make sure they can offer help, solace and an escape to those in their communities who need it most.

The news in Port Talbot highlights the need for a just transition as part of moves to decarbonisation, see for instance, Navigating just transitions: decarbonisation and the future of Welsh steel. Elsewhere, Dr Leslie Mabon has previously written about how football can be used to help gain insight into a just transition for localities currently reliant on carbon-intensive activities.

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Communications

There have been over 1.5m views of the social media post of an interview with Dundee FC club secretary. The club official focuses on storms and climate change as the reason for recent home match postponements, not acknowledging that a stone’s throw away Dundee United FC has not seen any games postponed.

This highlights the importance of getting climate communications right and acknowledging human factors where relevant too, in this instance, the club’s own pitch management. For more on the attribution of weather events and communication, see: Reporting extreme weather and climate change.

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Kit

The New Climate Institute and Carbon Market Watch released The 2024 Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor. It has in-depth assessments of the climate strategies of 51 major global companies. It’s well worth a read to understand the progress being made by global companies in general.

The report also includes an in-depth look at major football kit manufacturers, Adidas and Nike. Adidas’ strategy is found to have low integrity and Nike’s moderate integrity. Hopefully, this will lead those they supply kit to, to demand more action. Separately, see this analysis of Puma’s new recycled national team kits.

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Clubs

• Arsenal Women have defended their upcoming Australia trip amid a backlash over welfare and climate.

• Bayer Leverkusen and Vodafone are collaborating on a proof of concept to use anonymized mobile network data and AI to improve sustainability in football stadiums.

• SolaX Power have become a partner of Borussia Dortmund

• Forest Green Rovers German fan group, the Forest Green Devils are planning a ‘Choreography of Unity and Sustainability’ at an upcoming game.

• Leicester City. The Head of Grounds, Simon Gibson, gives a fascinating talk about the sustainability projects that the club have been implementing. Separately, see this on recycling Wembley’s pitch.

• Leicester Nirvana FC have launched their latest report: "Embedding Sustainable Development Goals in Grassroots Football".

• RCD Mallorca announces a strategic agreement with Schwarz Group which aims to make Estadi Mallorca Son Moix the first zero waste stadium in Spain.

• Rotherham United have won the EFL Green Club Award at the 2024 EFL Awards ceremony.

• Sevilla FC Women and Social Energy create a partnership which will also see “a collaborative strategy to improve the club’s sustainability and social responsibility”.

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Transport

• Aveley FC. To encourage bus travel to the ground, customers will be able to get £1 off two rounds of drinks at Aveley’s clubhouse by showing their bus ticket.

• Pedal to the Pitch led a ride to the Scotland Women vs Slovakia game.

• Sustaina-Bees, the Brentford fan group, will lead a ride to an upcoming Brentford Women’s game.

• North Texas officials have applied for funding for an electric bus fleet for FIFA 2026 World Cup. An official says: “We are on a tight timeline to actually take delivery of the buses in advance of the 2026 World Cup games." The FIFA 2026 World Cup Sustainability Strategy, due in 2023, has still not been published.

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Football organisations

Professional Footballer Associations

• The Australian PFA has launched Stoppage Time: A PFA Report on the A-Leagues and Climate Change which “explores the impact of climate on Australia and New Zealand’s professional domestic football competitions, the A-Leagues”.

• The English PFA has held its first-ever Climate and Sustainability workshop with professional footballers. It was kicked-off by Football For Future.

UEFA

• Coaches and staff of EURO 2024 teams convened for a pre-tournament briefing including on the sustainability aspects of the tournament. UEFA says: “We see participating teams as part of the solution”.

• New sustainable catering guidelines for food and beverage concessionaries have been published to “help event organisers and catering companies meet the growing demand for the provision of healthier, more inclusive and sustainable catering”.

World Cups

• Insideworldfootball talks to DFB general secretary Heike Ullrich and Royal Belgian Football Association president Pascale Van Damme about the joint Belgium-Netherlands-Germany bid for the Women’s World Cup 2027. A vote to decide who will host the tournament will take place at the FIFA Congress in Bangkok on 17th May.

• New FAQs on the Men’s World Cup 2030 say that: “The bid of Morocco, Portugal and Spain is committed to delivering the most sustainable FIFA World Cup in history.”

Football Associations

• Birmingham County FA has joined the SME Climate Hub, the second football organisation to do so (Vermont Green FC being the other)

• The GAA, the Football Associations of Wales and Denmark, and FC Porto have met to share their circularity action plans as part of the EU-supported ACCESS programme.

• Sport Wales has provided several energy saving grants to grassroots football clubs, and to other sports.

• Major League Soccer has launched its 7th Annual ‘Greener Goals Week of Service’ which runs from 9-22 April.

• The RFEF has announced that the Copa de Rey final will offset emissions (see also ‘More Generally’ below).

• The EFL has joined the British Association for Sustainable Sport.

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Events

• Fan Engagement on Climate & Sustainability: The Research. An online Pledgeball workshop with 4 great speakers. 22nd April.

• Carbon Literacy for Grassroots Football Online Course, 22nd-23rd April. Organised by Birmingham County FA Carbon Literacy.

• International Conference for Green and Sustainable Sports in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 26th April.

• The BASIS Sustainable Sport Conference 2024 with a packed programme of speakers. In Manchester at the Emirates Old Trafford, 29-30th April.

• Sustainability & CSRD Reporting in Football. Online Webinar from the FREE KICKS project, co-funded by the European Union. 20th May 2024

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Other

• Important Role Alert! It would be great to see a Chair and/or Non-Executive Directors of the Independent Football Regulator who are strongly supportive of more action on environmental issues. Take a look if that might be you, and share widely!

• SportsPro Hackathon 2024: Three ideas to make the 2026 World Cup, LA28, and major event venues more sustainable

• The latest Sport Ecology Group Research Review via the Sustainability Report

• Creating a liveable sporting future through climate leadership, environmental justice and citizen science. By Professor Brett Hutchins for Play The Game.

• The Carbon Footprint of Football: Unveiling the Dark Side of the Game. By Carol Konyn for Earth.Org

• The Petro-state of Football by Thinkhouse Dublin

• William Troost-Ekong on Victor Osimhen, facing Lionel Messi and fighting football's carbon footprint

• Meet edie’s 30 Under 30 Class of 2023: Christopher Goodwin, ESG Manager, Chelsea FC

• Why European football matches might finally be coming to the U.S. is a great long-read though does not look at the potential environmental impacts.

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In other sports

• The 2024 Paris Olympics. ‘Going For Green’ is a report by Carbon Market Watch and éclaircies. It shows that, despite improvement, the carbon footprint of the Olympics remains far too high to be sustainable. It calls for a radical rethink and provides ideas for an alternative approach.

• Cricket: A statement from the Board of Worcestershire County Cricket Club on the sustainability of their New Road ground in light of the recent unprecedented record volume of flooding at New Road.

• World Rugby is to introduce new heat guidelines including extended half-times.

• Also at the Olympics, Team Japan kits will have carbon footprint labels.

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More generally

• Inside the Controversy That's Divided the Carbon Offsets Market. A really good catch-up on a very important, and still moving, story. The outcome could have big impacts on clubs’ climate action decisions.

• Several leading scientists and researchers deliver “An urgent call to end the age of destruction and forge a just and sustainable future”.

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Housekeeping

This round-up has tested my understanding on a number of issues, and quite possibly gone beyond it at times! I’m still learning as I go along, and would really welcome any comments, corrections, or feedback you have.

Separately, the round-up of news has fallen out of its recent rhythm of going out fortnightly and early in the week. That will continue to happen from time to time due to personal circumstances and competing demands. I’ll endeavour to return it to some sort of pattern, but hope these posts arriving in your inbox, as and when, continues to work for you.

Until next time,

Fran James (he/him)
Football and Climate Change Newsletter
footballandclimatechange@gmail.com
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