Round up #11

Women's World Cup 2023, Guardiola, rescheduling, and much more

Jul 31, 2023

Image of a Greenland football pitch from @footy_nordic.

There have been more stories over the last fortnight than you can shake a stick at, so let’s get on.

An investigation by the BBC found that Wrexham took 16 domestic flights in their National League promotion season with one of only 29 minutes. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was later asked for his view on this. It shows how football can provide a focus for big climate issues and help raise them right up the agenda, even if more progress is still clearly needed on them.

Side note: This could also make the League 2 games next season between Forest Green Rovers and Wrexham an interesting contrast in styles in more ways than one! More on pre-season tours below.

A great range of videos, interviews and topics are covered in this in-depth look at Climate and Sustainability as part of the Sky Future of Football series. As David Garrido says in it, and linking to the above point, “football is in a unique position to tackle the climate crisis for a few reasons, the biggest of which is its mass appeal and its place within our culture.”

Kieran Maguire, of the Price of Football podcast, shared plans for the new format for UEFA competitions from 2024. These would lead to “many more matches”. In turn this will lead to more travel and more emissions to boot.

The plans also highlight a big problem in emissions reporting and responsibilities. UEFA only reports on the emissions from the final game of each of its club tournaments. So UEFAs plans will have no impact on their own goals of reducing emissions by 50% by 2030. But clubs participating in these new, bigger tournaments will need to eliminate more emissions than they previously thought.

A sign of things to come? The Kanagawa Soccer League in Japan announced that its season would start later in the year than planned “in consideration of how severe heat would affect the safety of participants and attendees”.

This is reported in Soccer feeling the heat from Japan's scorching summer in which a sports medicine specialist calls this a brave decision.

The International Olympic Committee has just said that it has commissioned studies into climate change’s impact on sporting schedules. More of football’s governing bodies will be called on to make big and brave scheduling decisions too.

Women’s World Cup 2023

Spirit of Football: The Ball arrives in New Zealand. Image from www.friendsoffootballnz.com

This is the culmination of the year-long journey of The Ball from Battersea Park in London to Aotearoa New Zealand. Its journey has been used as an advocacy tool for climate action and gender equality. Great work.

“Prior to every global sporting ‘super-event’, references to sustainability and legacy are regularly bandied around. When subjected to scrutiny however, some deliver more on their pledges than others.” FIFA

The above quote, in a post last week from FIFA about sustainability initiatives at the Women’s World Cup, comes after a Swiss regulator recently said in relation to the Qatar World Cup that FIFA had “made false statements' about carbon-neutral tournament”.

Euro tournaments

EURO 2024

The news that UEFA is encouraging teams to avoid flying between matches to reduce carbon impact generated headlines. Shouldn’t national football bodies now do the same for all domestic matches? And will UEFA do the same for their proposed expansion of European club tournaments?

Elsewhere in relation to Euro 2024 - A fantastic job opportunity: Project Manager "Football for Sustainability Summit 2024". The Summit, in July next year, will "chart a path for football's substantial role in fostering positive impacts on both people and the planet”.

EURO 2028

With Turkey withdrawing its bid, it now looks like the UK and Ireland will host. Details of the sustainability aspects of the bid can be found in the bid brochure here.

While details are high-level at this early stage, it will include a ‘compact and connected’ transport plan; a carbon tracker app for spectators; and a proposed match schedule to reduce emissions. Two initial observations:

EURO 2024 has placed a big emphasis on discounted and free public transport options to encourage low-carbon travel during the tournament. It will be important to learn lessons from this and consider the same for EURO 2028.
What would good emissions targets look like for EURO 2028 and Women’s EURO 2029? UEFA is committed to halving emissions by 2030. With these events close to that date, we should expect their targets to be significantly lower than the emissions from the previous finals.

EURO 2032

Italy and Turkey are planning a joint bid to host the tournament. Both countries have recently been experiencing record-breaking heatwaves. What temperatures could we expect during a Summer EURO 2032 in these countries? And will it be necessary to look at it being hosted at a different time of year?

Pre-season

Manchester United flew from Manchester to Edinburgh for a match against Lyon before then heading to the US

Spurs flew to Australia for one match, before heading to Bangkok for another game which was cancelled due to rain (pictured). They then headed to Singapore to play in temperatures of around 40°C. credit: GETTY

Elsewhere

Severe rain also delayed Manchester City’s final pre-season tour game in Seoul. The Mail reports that heat waves in Japan and Korea have not been ideal for Manchester City’s training with “Guardiola saying that they have not been able to work at the intensity he might have hoped”. The Mirror reports Guardiola saying “You just be here because the club needs to do it for commercial issues - and so we have to do it”.
Other games that have taken place in extreme temperatures include Leicester vs Liverpool in Singapore (41°C). The global union for professional football players, FIFPRO, recommends that if there is a Wet Bulb Globe Temperature of more than 32°C, training and matches should be rescheduled.
Manchester United vs Dortmund in Las Vegas took place in the air-conditioned Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas with a historic heatwave taking place outside the stadium. Those travelling to it, when outdoors, could expect temperatures to be an extreme 43°C.

Manchester United have committed to offsetting carbon emissions during their 2023 pre-season tour. The Climate Change Committee in the UK has summarised the risks of offsetting as follows:

Football and Climate Change Newsletter

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