Licensing, travels, innovation and more
Round up #46
Hello all,
I’m kicking-off this latest round-up of news and developments with a special message. Please donate if you can and you would like to see this newsletter continue in its free and open-to-all form. You can donate here.
The increasing time, love and energy that goes into the newsletter, combined with a change in personal circumstances related to caring, means that things are reaching a crossroads. I hope you are finding the newsletter useful. Your support can make the difference to it’s future.
Fran
Quick links: Club Licensing in France; Group travels; FIFA Innovation Programme; The European Omnibus and football; Let’s Decarbonise Football and Rugby in France; Club Disclosure - Arsenal; More news from clubs; In other news; LA Fires developments; and Some wider developments.
Club Licensing in France
The Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) is introducing two important new developments for the 2025/2026 Club Licence for Ligue 1 and 2 in relation to environmental sustainability. These are, firstly, a reporting platform allowing clubs to centralize their data in a simplified and supervised manner, and secondly, a common protocol for working out their carbon footprint, harmonized with UEFA.
These aim to support clubs in structuring and improving their environmental approach. The LFP say that “Due to the lack of a common methodology, clubs that have already measured their carbon footprint obtain results that are too heterogeneous” and elsewhere they say that “These developments will allow the LFP to more precisely measure the environmental footprint of French professional football and refine its impact reduction strategy.” More on these developments from Ecolosport, and the full LFP club licensing manual for 2025/26 is here.
Separately, A new academic study on the impact of the Deutsche Fußball Liga’s (DFL) sustainability regulations says that “licensing regulations can institutionalise sustainability policies in a sector that has been largely deregulated in terms of sustainability management.”
Group travels
Brentford have launched a supporters' travel fund, Travel Together, designed to provide financial support to help fans group together and travel to away matches. The club “want to make it easier, more affordable, more sustainable and more enjoyable for Bees fans to support the team on the road”.
In a similar vein, in Germany, the DFL has launched a carpooling portal for all Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 matches. Separately the LFP in France has reported that 33 of its clubs have set up a carpooling system (link in the section on Club Licensing in France). Elsewhere on the travel agenda, Andrew Dillon writes for Pledgeball on Remodelling the once infamous football special train services.
FIFA Innovation Programme
FIFA has relaunched and expanded its Innovation Programme. One of its ten priority areas is “Environmental and social sustainability”. FIFA says that “Organisations of any size are invited to propose their products or solutions to FIFA”.
The European Omnibus and football
The European Commission has published its Clean Industrial Deal. This restates its commitment to cutting emissions 90% by 2040 and includes 40 different measures to help deliver on it. More on the overall package is here.
Included in the measures is an ‘Omnibus’ package that will make changes to sustainability reporting, including on the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (or CSRD for short).
CSRD
As part of CSRD the very largest companies in Europe (listed companies with over 500 employees) are already required to report and are beginning to do so. From next year it had been expected that CSRD requirements would expand to include all companies with over 250 employees and an annual turnover of €40m. And beyond that it was expected to include EU-listed small and medium sized businesses from 2027.
The European Club Association (ECA) has previously identified approximately 150 clubs that could come within the scope of CSRD. UEFA and ECA have been developing their work and support for clubs in line with its requirements.
New Proposals
Under the new Omnibus proposals, there will be big changes to which companies need to report as part of CSRD, and what they need to include in these reports (see this neat summary table). In relation to CSRD, the changes mean that only companies with over a 1,000 employees and €450m will need to report.
The We Mean Business Coalition has said of the changes in the Omnibus package that: “some are positive, some less so, and some are confusing …[but] … Without comprehensive sustainability data, businesses, investors, and governments will face greater challenges in identifying and addressing climate-related vulnerabilities – as well as the climate-related opportunities or companies with effective solutions that may need capital to scale up. This will ultimately undermine resilience, innovation, and long-term competitiveness.”
Elsewhere the European Sustainable Investment Forum has said that the proposals risk undermining investment and competitiveness proposals risk undermining investment and competitiveness. Sustainable Views, from the FT Group, says that the changes have angered many and provides a range of feedback from organisations. Reuters reports on warnings from some that changes may impede EU climate targets.
What this means for football
Using the Deloitte Money League 2025 as a guide would suggest that only five or so European football clubs will be required to provide sustainability reporting as part of CSRD, rather than 150 as previously anticipated by ECA. This will mean that sustainability reporting for the other 145 football clubs will become voluntary (unless they have domestic requirements to do so).
Voluntary reporting, as the Climate Change Committee has said in a related context, could mean there is “little obligation for companies to be informed or act on the climate impacts”. It could also make it difficult to assess the plans and progress individual clubs are making on sustainability, compare the progress between them, and assess the progress within football overall.
At this stage, this Omnibus package is a proposal. To be finalised it will need input and approval from the European Parliament and Council. Given the big changes for football, as a first step in response to these proposals, UEFA, the ECA, and other organisations such as Football Supporters Europe and the Union of European Clubs, could all consider making their positions public on these important proposed changes.
Let’s Decarbonise Football and Rugby in France
The “Let’s Decarbonise Sport” Report on Football and Rugby in France has been published by The Shift Project, a Paris-based think tank. The French Football Federation, The Ligue de Football Professionnel, and The French Rugby Federation have contributed to it. It’s 191-pages long, with extensive analysis and recommendations. It includes at least two key new insights to me to reflect on and consider what this means for action going forward.
Firstly, it looks at the carbon footprint of both professional and amateur football. As I understand it, professional football is defined in the report as those overseen by the LFP (the top two men’s leagues and the top women’s league), with all other 12,000 football clubs, overseen by the FFF, considered as amateur.
The report finds that the total carbon footprint of football is 1.8 million tCO2e per year, with 15% (275,000 tCO2e) coming from professional football and 85% coming from amateur football (1.525 million tCO2e). Different actions are proposed for amateur and professional football.
Secondly, the report sets out an analysis with a number of actions that can significantly reduce emissions by 20250. However, in relation to professional football it says that:
“Despite our attempts, none of our scenarios succeed in reconciling the achievement of climate objectives with an increase in the number of spectators and/or international matches: their number will have to be stabilised in the best case scenario.
The safest path requires rethinking the programming of these international events according to two principles: proximity (a more local audience and geographical proximity between teams) and moderation (an adjustment in the number of matches and/or international spectators)”.
The need for a greater understanding of emissions throughout football and the tailoring of responses, and also the need for a rethinking of the programming of international football, are just two insights in this report. There’s a lot to take in, so if you see anything else of note, of have any other views on the report, please do say!
Club Disclosure - Arsenal
In the UK the biggest companies are required to make climate-related financial disclosures (CFDs) in their annual accounts. It applies to those with over £500m turnover and over 500 employees. In football this includes: Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City; The FA and Spurs. These annual disclosures cover strategy, risks and opportunities, governance, targets and more.
First out of the blocks this season is Arsenal. You can find their environmental reporting in their annual accounts on pages 8-13. Here are a few points I took away:
The top climate risk identified is ‘Extreme weather impacting operations’ with its immediacy being short/medium. Six further transitional risks are identified covering policy and legal, market and reputational issues.
Arsenal “is managing its risks and actions based on the 1.5-degree temperature increase scenario (as adopted by SBTi) but also considers the 2-degree and 4-degree scenarios”.
Total emissions are reported to be up by 6% year-on-year to 22,088 tCO2e. Electricity-related emissions jumped by 38% to 2,956 tCO2e. Reasons for changes in them are unclear. Scope 3 emissions account for 76% of emissions. There is no breakdown by categories within scope 3.
Both carbon intensity measures have decreased in the year. These seem to be driven by large increases in revenue and staff rather than changes in business practices. No assessment is made of what all these year-on-year changes will mean for progress towards Arsenal’s 2030 and 2040 SBTi approved-targets.
There’s more in the report to consider. And if you want to understand best practice in these climate-related disclosures take a look at this guide from the Financial Reporting Council. I’ll aim to look at the other CFD reports as they come out, and once they are all in to also try and take a look across the piece. Also, expect to see environmental reporting in other club annual accounts as these appear in coming weeks, and reports on them here.
More news from clubs
Bourne Town has received a free energy audit as part of an FA national programme to improve the sustainability credentials of grassroots football clubs.
Both Portadown and Linfield have expressed "extreme" and "deep" disappointment with the Northern Ireland Football League after it declined to offer compensation to supporters financially impacted by the late postponements of Irish Premiership games on 7 December due to Storm Darragh. The news puts the issue of the cost impacts on fans of extreme weather in the spotlight.
Spurs have become the first Premier League club to join the UN-backed Sports for Nature Framework
Sunderland has reduced the size of its planned solar farm next to its training ground by 1,700 solar panels to 9,421 panels. It follows planning objections. It will still be among the biggest known club-led solar projects in the UK. (Manchester City expect to put in place 10,500 solar panels).
In other news
Over 130 athletes in Australia have shown their support for the Duty of Care campaign. It supports action for a duty to take reasonable care to protect young Australians from climate change harm.
The British Association for Sustainable Sport (BASIS) will hold its 2025 Sustainable Sport Conference on 11-12 June.
Elsewhere in the world of events, the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research has reported on Massive Attack’s gig in Bristol last year. It focusses on onsite energy, transport and food, and also takes a look at how audience transport and engagement could be improved (also check out: Unfinished Sympathy one of my favourite songs).
Government engagement is critical to advancing the sport and climate agenda says writer and consultant Barney Weston in SportsPro.
A great photo from a flooded Shrewsbury Town in 2020, is lead picture in an obituary for sports photographer Matthew Ashton. There are many other amazing photos of his work in the piece too.
As part of Green Football's Great Save is an annual campaign, Let’s Go Zero are hosting a webinar on the 5th March on how schools can harness the power of football to save the planet.
As we look towards Green Football’s Great Save here in the UK, it's interesting to note that the European Council and Parliament have come to an agreement to reduce food waste and set new rules on waste textile. Related to this, Kits For The World look at Extended Producer Responsibility.
Fossil Free Football speak on Premier League Flight-Tracking and the Carbon Boot.
In Offshore wind and coastal football clubs: A match made in heaven? Esmé Deadman writes for the Sustainability Huddle on the question of why major green companies are virtually absent from sports sponsorship.
Roger Parmelin of EcoSports reports on trends in sustainability recruitment in different sports. Football dominates.
Wayne Mumford of RSK Group speaking to the SportsPro podcast on: How sustainable infrastructure can transform your sports business.
A new Infographic on sport events in the heat, based on 2022 research, and published in the latest British Journal of Sports Medicine.
LA Fires developments
Gavin Newsom, Governor of California has written to the US Congress asking for nearly $40 billion for L.A. wildfire relief. The letter includes a statement saying: “And we are confident that if we work together, Los Angeles will continue to serve as a beacon to the world and securely place the city on solid ground in the coming years as it hosts the FIFA World Cup and Olympics — and thrive for the century to come.”.
A question that comes out of the situation - what role does / should FIFA, the IOC, and governing bodies have when extreme weather impacts on host cities of their upcoming events?
Some wider developments
Climate
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has set out its advice on how the UK should cut its emissions to 87% below 1990 levels by 2040. Carbon Brief takes a useful in-depth look at what it says. An accompanying report for the CCC that looks worth a read but I’ve not looked at yet: Citizens’ Panel for an accessible and affordable household vision of Net Zero.
Chief Financial Officers and the Green Transition. A report by global management consultancy, Kearney, with We Don’t Have Time. “Ninety-two percent of CFOs say they will invest more in sustainability, with more than half saying they will significantly increase their investments”.
In the US, The LA Times reports that Mass firings across National Weather Service, NOAA ignite fury among scientists worldwide.
Football
New polling from Ipsos explores perceptions of the most serious challenges facing professional football in Britain today. There are some very important findings to note here on the big issues for football. Perhaps Ipsos could have also included extreme weather and/or climate change as options for those being surveyed, to help gauge where it sits in the overall picture.
In the UK, MPs will hold a debate on financial sustainability and governance of English football on the 6th March.
Please donate if you can to keep the newsletter in its free and open access format. And as ever, comments, corrections, content suggestions and offers to write guest posts are really, really, really welcome at any time.
Fran James (he/him)
Football and Climate Change Newsletter
info@footballandclimate.org
LinkedIn | Bluesky | X