Football and climate change: ensuring an evidence-based response

Well-intentioned actions need robust evidence. What does the evidence tell us? What next for policy and research?

The hosting of the men’s World Cup 2022 in fossil fuel-rich Qatar, coupled with growing scrutiny of fossil fuel money in football more widely, has brought the climate implications of the sport into sharp focus. Fans and wider society increasingly expect authorities and clubs to take a pro-active role in responding to climate change. This is reflected in the range of networks, campaigns and initiatives that are aiming to work out what climate change means for football.

Nonetheless, well-intentioned actions must be underpinned by the best available scientific evidence. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warn of maladaptation and lock-in, whereby decisions taken today may inadvertently do more long-term harm than good when it comes to reducing emissions or adapting to the impacts of climate change. Fortunately, there is a long tradition of scholarly research into the different ways football and sport more generally interact with the environment. 

As a climate change scientist and football fan, I decided to take some time to undertake a deep dive into the literature and find out what the science is saying about how the sport I love impacts on the climate, and how a changing climate is going to affect football. My review has just been published in Climate Policy, one of the leading scientific journals which reports the state of the art on climate change policies and legislation from around the world. Here I’d like to set out some of my findings on what clubs, leagues and players can do to reduce the environmental footprint of our sport and ensure football remains resilient under a changing climate.

The first big area of study out there is to do with how football causes climate change. Scientists agree that travel – and especially transportation – is the biggest source of emissions in football. It is no surprise that bigger teams competing at higher levels, who have more fans and are more likely to fly to and from games, will have larger carbon footprints. 

Responding to this means less flying domestically, and thinking about how league and tournament schedules could be organised to reduce the need for frequent flights. The good news is that evidence suggests elite-level tournaments can be just as competitive and exciting with a bit of rescheduling. In fact, less punishing travel schedules could even mean that players are better rested and able to perform to a higher level. 

The second area of research looks at how football is affected by climate change. A wealth of studies from other sports suggest rising temperatures pose a serious health risk to players, but that this can be mitigated through water breaks (which we are seeing already in top-flight football) as well as rescheduling games and training sessions for cooler times of the day. 

The evidence also shows that weather extremes such as storms and high winds, which will intensify as climate change bites, will lead to more cancellations and the need again to think carefully about scheduling. Increasing extremes will have implications for how we maintain pitches – although the science on whether grass or synthetic pitches are better is at present less clear-cut.

A third area of research looks at how players and clubs can ‘lead by example’ when it comes to taking action on climate change, and encourage fans to think about their own lifestyles. A number of studies show how clubs have been able to harness fans’ sense of collective identity and get supporters to work together on, for example, energy-saving and recycling initiatives. 

Research from psychology also shows that players can be important leaders on climate action, especially if their own behaviours – such as switching to plant-based diets, cycling to and from games, or supporting environmental organisations – match their words on climate change. At the same time, though, fans and the wider public can quickly become sceptical of initiatives that they view as insincere, and it may be unfair to place too much burden on individual players who are, after all, athletes first and foremost.

A fourth branch of study is concerned with the thorny question of fossil fuels in football. Accusations of ‘sportswashing’, where big polluters seek to launder their reputations through financing of sport, are rife in football. This may take the form of sponsorship, like Emirates Airlines backing AC Milan and Arsenal, or Gazprom with the Champions League. Sportswashing in football also extends to ownership, with countries, companies and individuals who have got rich off oil and gas money buying teams outright, like the Saudi Public Investment Fund buying Newcastle United or INEOS buying OGC Nice. Arts and cultural organisations are increasingly seeking to ‘divest’ from fossil fuels, and football leagues, tournaments and organisations too are coming under pressure to present credible plans to show how their business models will be compatible with global climate goals.

At a local level, however, a rich vein of social science research shows how histories of fossil fuel extraction can be critical components of teams’ identity, and might even be a source of pride for fans and communities. Teams like Cowdenbeath, Shakhtar Donetsk, Schalke 04 and Road JC Kerkrade all have their roots in coal mining. As governments think about what a ‘just transition’ means for regions whose economies and employment bases rely on high-emitting industries, football can thus give a good insight into how fossil fuel extraction is linked with a sense of place and identity, and hence what aspects of fossil fuel identity are important to protect as a source of strength as high-emitting economic activities are shut down. 

So, what next? My review identified a series of evidence gaps for an effective football response to climate change. 

One of these is the need to know more about how climate change will affect football in less-wealthy nations, especially at lower latitudes. At present, a lot of the evidence about impacts of weather extremes on sport comes from North America, Europe and Australia, and not from the places that are going to be hit hardest and first by climate change. 

Another is the need for clear strategies for getting elite football away from fossil fuel finance. In this regard, expertise from the arts, humanities and social sciences can be extremely helpful in facilitating difficult conversations and imagining new business models. 

We also need to remember that although a lot of the research at present into football and climate change focuses on elite-level players and tournaments, most people globally experience football in the context of local-level and community clubs. So there is a need for more research into, for example, how community clubs can look after their pitches or alter their travel schedules when they might not have the money to do so. 

Lastly, it’s also notable that most football and climate research is implicitly concerned with men’s football. The wider literature on gender and climate change is very clear that different genders are affected by climate change differently, so more explicit consideration of what a climate response looks like for women’s football may be required.

Here I have only scratched the surface of the extensive body of scientific evidence that we can draw on to develop an evidence-driven response to the climate challenge in football. Through doing this review, I’ve been fortunate to be able to learn a lot from people who know much more about the underpinning science of emissions, heat impacts and all the rest. 

The big challenge now – which I hope I can contribute to – is making this knowledge accessible to the people tasked with making decisions about how to manage football under a changing climate.

You can read the Open Access paper online at: https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2022.2147895

This is a guest post by Dr Leslie Mabon. Twitter: @ljmabon

Dr Leslie Mabon is a Lecturer in Environmental Systems at The Open University. He is an environmental social scientist by training whose research focuses on resilience to environmental change, with a particular focus on coastal regions. Leslie is also a member of the Young Academy of Scotland. He is a lifelong Raith Rovers fan and an enthusiastic supporter of a full and thorough response to climate change across all areas of football.

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