Newsletter #4

An End of Year Wrap on Football and Climate Change

Happy holidays to you all and big thanks for your support so far. Whatever you are up to over the holiday time, I hope you have a good one.

To tide you over the next couple of weeks, here are links to twelve of the most insightful pieces on football and climate change that I came across in 2022. The aim is to provide a range of perspectives across a range of different media.

I’m looking forward to more in 2023 and hope you are too. See you then!

best wishes

Fran

2022 Wrapped

1. An introduction to football and climate change
   ”How are football clubs tackling the climate emergency? : Football’s Toughest Opponent”
   This Sky Sports documentary by David Garrido looks at what governing bodies, clubs, managers and players are doing and includes several interviews.
   

2. What fans can do
   ”How football fans can talk to their clubs about tackling climate change”
   A blog by Football For Future and Pledgeball.
   

3. A players’ response
   ”Sam Mewis: Climate change, player safety and the 2026 World Cup”
   An article for The Athletic.
   

4. A Premier League focus

   “The Influence of The Premier League”.
   A podcast from the Emergency on Planet Sport team, it includes interviews with senior figures at clubs and provides insights on what could happen next.

5. A grassroots response
   ”Save Today, Play Tomorrow”
   The campaign by Birmingham County Football Association, who are signatories to the UN’s Sport for Climate Action Framework.

6. Club finance directors perspectives
   ”The Annual Survey of Football Finance Directors 2022. Football Finance 2.0”. BDO. (2022).
   A survey that includes a section on ‘Environmental, Social & Governance.
   

7. Understanding the evidence and how to respond
   "Football and climate change: ensuring an evidence-based response".
   This short piece was a guest post in this newsletter by climate scientist and football fan Dr Leslie Mabon.
   

8. Football and climate change in the context of other challenges
   “Football For Good Gameplan” by Football Beyond Borders.
   

9. Climate justice and football

   A podcast interview with Sean McCabe, Climate Justice Officer at Dublin’s Bohemian FC

10. More on the Premier League, plus Bundesliga and Ligue 1 clubs

    The Sports Positive League ranks clubs in a sustainability league table format.

11. More on the role of football fans
    “Climate change, catastrophe and hope in football fandom" by Jennifer Amann and Mark Doidge.
    A free extract on Google Scholar of a book chapter.
    

12. Football emissions in the context of sports emissions
    “The impacts of sport emissions on climate: Measurement, mitigation, and making a difference.”
    A journal article in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences by Wilby et al.
    

And that’s a wrap! As ever, suggestions for reports and issues to focus on are welcome and proposals for guest posts are particularly welcome. Any other feedback is more than welcome too.

Please send any comments or suggested corrections or changes to this newsletter, or suggestions for future content, to: footballandclimatechange@gmail.com

All summaries, views, errors and omissions are my own. Links provided to articles in this newsletter are not endorsements of the views in them.

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