A green weekend, calls for action, and much more
Round-up #25
Welcome all!
Soooooo much has been happening since the last round-up. A lot is due to Green Football Weekend in the UK, which is just coming to an end, but there’s been plenty more too. This round-up will attempt to cover these developments and also dip its toes into more detail on a few of them.
I’ve left the reader question I posed in the last round-up open, and will return to that next time. Thanks for the feedback so far, and views still welcome on what a green future for football will look like 10 years from now.
Fran
Coalition calls for regulator to have a role on environmental sustainability
Ahead of Green Football Weekend, a new coalition called on the UK Government to ensure that the proposed football regulator has a role on environmental sustainability.
The Green Football Coalition includes Forest Green Rovers' Chair, Dale Vince, the Football Supporters Association, Count Us In, Football For Future, Pledgeball, and Planet League. Sarah Jacobs, Green Football Weekend said:
“We believe the Regulator should have a role on sustainability. In particular, they should be responsible for enforcing minimum licensing requirements, with environmental sustainability measures as part of this. This would create a responsibility for clubs to include both financial and environmental sustainability as part of their overall governance and reporting structures.
It would also promote environmental sustainability across the football pyramid, without placing overly burdensome responsibilities on clubs with fewer resources.”
A recent YouGov poll of 2,000 people found that 63% agreed that the new independent football regulator should have a role on environmental sustainability, backing a long-standing call for this. A recent post in this newsletter also set out a case for the Football Regulator to have a role, and there is high-level consensus on the need for the Government to take further action on the sport and sustainability agenda.
This intervention is timely as the cross-party Culture, Media and Sport Committee recently wrote to the Sports Minister “urging the Government to bring forward the Football Governance Bill as soon as possible”.
Participants in the coalition have briefed the Sports Minister, Stuart Andrew, on their recommendations for further action. Separately, on Sunday, Sir Keir Starmer said "I do think the regulator could look at sustainability as well".
Keep an eye out for further developments on this from coalition participants and here in the newsletter.
Green Football Weekend
With more than 85 UK clubs taking part its been hard to keep track of everything going on. Luckily, this press release from the Green Weekend Football Weekend Team gives an excellent summary of much of the club and player action. Alongside this check out the leaderboard to see all the fan action taking place. A few further pieces to note:
In The Conversation:
Green Football Weekend: eight things grassroots clubs can do to reach net zero by Mark Charlton, De Montfort University
Green Football Weekend: how to make a Premier League club truly ‘sustainable’ by Leslie Mabon, The Open University
In Forbes:
'Green Football Weekend Takes Hold Of English Soccer; Don’t Miss It' by Vitas Carosella
Green Football Weekend: Shooting For Action And Impact by Claire Poole of Sport Positive
Elsewhere:
Green Football Weekend: Win £1,000 for your project. The Football Supporters’ Association is asking for submissions by 9th February.
“GFW will only be successful if it helps to establish meaningful, last change in football. The game is yet to show enough appetite for it”. Green Football Weekend is well-intentioned but full of hypocrisy by Matt Woosnam in The Athletic
Former players speaking up include Mathieu Flamini and Adrian Mariappa.
Podcast: Football’s Climate Conversation with Joe Cole, Robbie Savage and Dale Vince. A 90min podcast hosted by Pledgeball's Katie Cross and Alex Piper
Ground-breaking player call for action
“I am urging the Women’s Super League and Women’s Championship to reconsider the role they have given Barclays. We’ve fought for generations to get the game to where it is today and as we grow we must take care to do so in a way that is in line with our values and secures a positive future.”
Footballer, Katie Rood in The Guardian: “If women’s football cares about the climate crisis it must cut ties with Barclays”.
Club Domestic Flights
“Lots of football clubs are already cutting back on flight …By choosing to fly, some big names are letting the side down” say Possible who are calling on people to join them in asking decision-makers to implement a simple ‘no fly’ policy for their leagues.
In The Mirror Felix Keith wrote about Premier League clubs under fire for travel choices as Green Football Weekend kicks off.
Tadcaster Albion
On their latest postponed game: “That’s number 6 this season, could we be on for a record !! Climate change is causing significant issues for us with loss of income with reduced home games!!”
Clubs
Just some of the recent developments:
Bristol City offered free travel from the main train station to their Men’s home game, and half-price coach travel to their Women’s away trip
Bristol Sport has a new Net Zero Partner
Chelsea had three players take part in a school education sesssion
Colchester United are creating extra space for e-scooters and e-bikes
Crystal Palace give an update on their environmental actions
Everton on sustainability and their new stadium
Fulham have added a sustainability page to their website
Grenoble Foot 38 have committed to joining Football Ecologie France
Inter Miami are travelling more than 23,000km for pre-season games
Middlesborough offer to recycle small electricals
Newark & Sherwood United - the vegan non-league club doing things differently
Newcastle United supporters were offered free matchday travel in an initiative with Newcastle City Council
Norwich City hosted a Football For Future workshop and offered discounts on environmentally friendly products
Sporting Kansas City’s pre-World Cup green mission in Global Sustainable Sport
Watford offers fans eco prize collecting litter with the players
Wolves published their first environmental sustainability report (I hope to look at that in more detail in the next round-up) Also, their Foundation allotment produce is feeding Molineux.
Wrexham were criticised for plans to fly to their game at Sutton (and seem to have not taken part in Green Football Weekend?)
Further summaries of GFW club actions are here, here, and here. Sorry if I’ve missed your club! Drop me a line if I have, or you have something coming up to share.
AFCON
EVENT: TOTAL Greenwash: Ending AFCON Oil Sponsorship, Thursday 8th February with Farai Monro of the Magamba Network, football writer David Golblatt, and others
Temperatures during AFCON are breaking records with an on-field bust-up being blamed on the heat
EURO 2024 team base camps
UEFA reports that 20 teams have confirmed their team base camps for the tournament. The match schedule has been designed so it “favours team delegations travelling by train … or bus”.
With the base camps for teams now announced and the match schedule clear, will teams confirm they will not fly within Germany during the group stages? For instance, estimated drive times from England’s camp to group games are 4hr 9mins, 3hr 3mins, and 4hr 26mins.
TV Times
Newcastle fans, led by Wor Flags, protest against kick-off times saying they are "making a mockery of Green Football Weekend". See also The Mirror on TV scheduling.
UEFA Carbon Footprint Calculator
A “Carbon Footprint Calculator methodology, focused on football, to measure, manage, and disclose greenhouse gas emissions” will be launched on 6th March.
It aims to “provide a unified and approved method for European football to measure emissions and inform data-driven reduction strategies … [and] … enables the streamlining of measurement processes, reduces costs for football stakeholders, and enhances consistency and transparency across the sport.”
A clearer and more consistent approach is to be strongly welcomed. It will be interesting to look at the details. In the meantime, here are some ideas to maximise its potential:
Make it mandatory in UEFA regulations for all clubs entering UEFA competitions to use the methodology and publish strategies based on it, with targets at least in line with UEFA’s
Publish a yearly ‘State of European Football Emissions’ report bringing together clubs’ emissions calculations and making recommendations for further actions for UEFA and clubs
Consider the pros and cons of a fund to support climate resilience in football similar to the one for EURO 2024 - with the size of the fund based on the amount of UEFA club tournaments emissions
World Cup 2026 Schedule
Just as I was finalising this round-up FIFA announced its World Cup 2026 match schedule and locations. The Q&A accompanying it says the Sustainability Strategy for the tournament is still being developed - this despite it originally being slated for publication in 2023.
The Q&A also mentions player welfare but nothing about the risks to players from the extreme weather we saw in host countries in 2023, and nothing about fan welfare in these conditions either.
See also Fossil Free Football on The 2026 World Cup: a climate disaster in the making
Elsewhere
Harry Kane leads sustainable clothing firm Reflo’s UK£1m seed funding round
A Premier League spokesperson says the league “is in the process of finalising an environmental sustainability strategy which will set out plans to deliver climate action”.
EVENT: Carbon Literacy for Grassroots Football. Monday, 19 February
Sport for Climate Action and Nature Academic Symposium at Loughborough University - 7 takeaways by Joanna Czutkowna
Major League Sustainability has released an Inaugural Report on Environmental, Social, and Governance Approaches of Teams Competing in the MLS
The Climate of Sport Podcast is launching a new 'Ask Me Anything' series.
The Sustainability Huddle provides a platform for individuals in or passionate about sustainability and sports to connect, learn and collaborate.
Pep Talk
Alongside watching this also read The Issue with this Manchester City Football Club ad.
Fran James (he/him)
Football and Climate Change Newsletter
footballandclimatechange@gmail.com
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