Round-up #7
Changing of the seasons, Women's World Cup 2023, sponsorship innovation, new research insights, transparency and accountability, and more.
Changing of the seasons
The 2022/23 season may be drawing to a close but plenty has been going on in the last fortnight when it comes to football and climate change.
With the European club finals upon us, Fossil Free Football has identified opportunities for UEFA to radically reduce emissions due to these matches. This includes relocating the finals to cut flight emissions and a number of other key structural changes to the organisation of future tournaments. Similar arguments could, and should, be applied to the finals of national club tournaments.
As thoughts turn to the 23/24 season, I’ve taken a look at the pre-season tours of Premier League clubs and what we can learn from their plans. Clubs have more control over these fixtures than others, so opportunities for them to make environmentally positive changes are greater. Less long-haul travel and matches in extreme weather would be good for players and good for the planet.
FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023: Get Involved
Pledgeball is seeking partners and advocates to support its campaign during the Women’s World Cup to reduce emissions. They are inviting support from individuals, teams, and organisations who will encourage fans to get involved.
Sponsorship innovation
Two fascinating new initiatives to keep an eye on and learn from:
New Voluntary Code for Sports and Arts Organisations by The Climate Council based in Australia. “We’ve designed a framework to help CEOs and Boards of these organisations do some deep thinking about whether their values as a club are aligned with fossil fuels”. It includes a pledge that institutions can make to remove fossil fuel sponsorship from their uniforms, stadiums and events.
The Sport Sponsors Climate Pledge by ChangeNOW and 17 Sport. Initial signatories are EDF, Orange, Accor and Sodexo with more expected to follow. Signatories “call on all the sports organisations … that they are partnered with to commit to GHG emission reduction objectives”. From 2025 signatories’ sponsorship investments will be contingent upon partners meeting clear climate criteria.
Elsewhere …
Sustainable Football has created a scorecard for clubs of all sizes to score themselves against a range of environmental sustainability criteria.
Event on 8th June: Greening sports for achieving participative and contributory circular communities: skills and know-how for getting there. An EU Green Week Partner Event.
Sport Positive Leagues released a new matrix which collates and scores environmental sustainability information from German Bundesliga football clubs. VfL Wolfsburg comes top and there’s lots to learn from what different clubs are doing.
Young people at grassroots club Leicester Nirvana FC took part in the Sustainable Development Goals activity with De Montfort University Leicester as part of their joint Net Zero football project. Learn more about their project here.
William Troost-Ekong of Seria A side, Salernitana, and the Nigeria national football team, talks to The Guardian about his carbon-neutral international transfer and other ways football is, and can, contribute to tackling climate change.
A bagful of new research insights
The World Congress on Science and Football 2023 met in The Netherlands between 24-26 May. Here are some of the interesting insights from the book of abstracts.
We find supporting evidence of the negative effects of air pollution in elite adolescent soccer players in both matches and training … Therefore, mitigation strategies are recommended to reduce athlete exposure to air pollution even when exercising in moderate air quality.
from “Air pollution negatively affects elite adolescent soccer players’ performance and well-being”. By Adam Beavan et al.
The congested International Match Calendar poses a risk to professional footballers’ physical and mental health … A total of 55% of players believed they sustained one or more injuries due to the overload and it has affected 52% of respondents’ mental state.
from “The congested International Match Calendar in football: views of 1,055 professional male players”. By Lervasen Pillay et al.
As hotter environmental conditions become more frequent, football teams are competing in high temperatures more regularly … A small to medium relationship exists between hotter temperatures and reduced match running performance.
from “Influence of environmental temperature on running and gameplay performance in professional soccer”. By Edgar Schwarz et al.
In soccer scrimmages played at high environmental temperatures and humidity, physical and physiological responses of soccer players may decrease due to high thermal stress.
from “Physical, physiological and thermoregulatory responses in soccer players under heat stress”. By Júlio A. Costa et al.
Transparency and Accountability
Beyond the football world, there is plenty happening which has important links back to it …
You may have read me banging on about this here in previous posts, so it was good to read this piece in the Financial Times: ‘Why carbon emissions reports need handling with care’. Among many great points the article makes: “No company can legitimately boast about its green credentials while addressing only about 15 per cent of its total emissions.”
New mandatory climate disclosure requirements are on the way for businesses. The We Mean Business Coalition has produced guidance for companies on getting their greenhouse gas reporting in order. It focuses on the role of chief financial officers working with their sustainability leads and across their organisations and is surprisingly readable. With this to help, we should expect leading clubs to make a big step in the consistency and quality of their climate reporting in their next annual reports, and for fans to be able to ask detailed questions about the processes and practices their clubs have in place.
A new net zero tracker Data Explorer was launched and covers nations, regions, cities and companies. It’s by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit and the University of Oxford and aggregates data across 4,075 entities. No football clubs or authorities are on it but it’s a useful tool to have a play with and you might find some of your club sponsors in there.
As ever, if you have any further ideas, suggestions, or points to make, and want to send them over, or discuss further, then just drop us a line.
And many thanks again for your continuing support!
Fran James (he/him)
Football and Climate Change Newsletter
@fbandclimate
footballandclimatechange@gmail.com