The biggest clubs in Europe
Part 1: Progress so far on net zero
Introduction
As the world’s most popular sport, football has a unique opportunity to inspire climate action. The biggest football clubs in the world have a massive global reach. This makes their role and influence particularly important. The more that clubs do to take climate action themselves, the more credibility they have when encouraging others to take action too.
This post looks at the biggest 29 clubs in Europe by revenue to assess their action on net-zero. These 29 clubs are also the biggest 29 clubs in the world by revenue (the 30th, Flamengo, is Brazilian).
It finds that progress overall by European clubs is poor and more action is needed. A further post, coming soon, will look at what further actions could be considered.
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Findings
A look at the top 29 clubs in Europe by revenue shows that:
Of the 5 biggest clubs in Europe only 2 (40%) have a net zero target. 60% do not, including the biggest club Real Madrid
Of the 20 biggest clubs featured in the latest UEFA European Club Finance and Investment Landscape only 9 (45%) have a net zero target
Of the 29 biggest clubs in Europe by revenue, only 13 (45%) have a net zero target
It is good to see some clubs setting net-zero targets, and all clubs have some positive environment-related stories to tell. At the same time the overall picture and outcomes matter, and which this post focuses on.
As a comparator, we can look at action by the wider business community in Europe. Within that wider community in general, from Net Zero Tracker data, we see that:
84% of the largest publicly-listed EU companies have a net zero target
75% of the largest private companies headquartered in Europe have net zero targets1
This means 45% of the biggest clubs in Europe have a net zero target compared to 75% of biggest private companies in the wider European business community. That’s some gap. Those companies in the wider business community will be bigger fish financially. Even so, the biggest clubs are not small fry, with revenues ranging from €1045.5m to €206.9m. They can reasonably be expected to be setting net zero targets too. So this analysis suggests that collectively the biggest football clubs are lagging behind in setting net zero targets.
It is also important not to leave an analysis there. Simply catching up with the wider European business community, or even all clubs setting a net-zero target, would not mean job done. As also noted by the Net Zero Tracker initiative:
“While net zero targets signal corporate support, they are not, on their own, a reliable proxy for climate ambition. A growing number of studies highlight that companies’ headline targets may be undermined by omissions, caveats and distortions, making them less ambitious in practice than on paper ... Therefore, a deeper dive into the target structure and planning for implementation is essential”.
This post does not propose to carry out a detailed analysis of the robustness of the net zero targets of football clubs. On this front, a full, independent, expert analysis would be really welcome to see. Get in touch if you have already done this, or have any plans to do so!
However, as a starting point we can take a further statement from Net Zero Tracker that: “Emission reduction plans should — at a minimum — be specific, measurable, time-bound and cover the largest emitting areas of a company’s value chain”.
With this starting point in mind, the spreadsheet of the top 29 clubs also provides a link to their main page on environmental sustainability. An initial look at what clubs say suggests it is as plain as the nose on your face that:
there is considerable variability in the information being provided by clubs - in structure, coverage, level of detail, timeliness and more
much of what is published would struggle to be called a ‘strategy’ or ‘plan’
there is a huge lack of quantified data, and where there is it is not presented in a way that is comparable between clubs
where targets exist, there is variation and ambiguity in the targets being set, and it’s not possible to tell if any clubs are on track to meet their targets
while a number of initiatives are reported on by clubs, their impact is unclear. Outputs not outcomes are being prioritised and publicised
Discussion
We see that the biggest and most important football clubs are lagging well behind the wider European business community in the basics of even setting a net zero target. Among those that do, there are questions about the robustness and implementation of these targets. Many of these clubs do not appear to have what could reasonably be expected to be in a sustainability strategy - which is now a UEFA licensing requirement.
On implementation plans to reduce emissions, and reporting on them, progress is microscopic. We have no idea if any big club is on track to reduce its emissions in line with its targets. This fits with a European Commission assessment that there is limited data but the wide sports sector “should be assumed to be significantly off track in delivering Green Deal objectives”.
All this said, I’d welcome readers to provide any further analysis or interpretations of the available evidence that provides further and/or different findings.
This is also against a background of leading global businesses across all sectors continuing to push forward with sustainability actions despite choppy political waters (see for instance, recent business surveys by Deloitte and PWC).
In addition, a September 2025 survey showed that 68% of European business leaders want the EU and European companies to show global leadership on business sustainability standards, and 59% believe that becoming more environmentally sustainable is good for their company’s reputation and profitability.
While business leaders in other sectors continue to press on and take advantage of the benefits sustainability action brings, there is a risk of a growing gap opening up between the football world and wider business world on sustainability.
The COP30 climate talks are starting in Brazil this week. This will have a focus on moving from pledges and plans to implementation. While COP30 focuses on implementation, in 2025 a lot of football at the biggest levels still has a lot to do to get basic building blocks in place. This should be of considerable concern to all those who care deeply about the game.
Why is this happening? This newsletter has previously covered research by the European Commission on challenges to Green Sport, and the work of the UK Government on wider governance issues in football. These provide us with several sport-specific barriers that need to be overcome including: short-termism, governance challenges, methodological issues, and more.
At the same time, this analysis suggests the biggest clubs have an opportunity to move from being a laggard to a leader on net zero with the right actions. So what needs to happen next?
A further post coming shortly will set out some proposals on what this might include.
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Fran James (he/him)
Football and Climate Change Newsletter
info@footballandclimate.org
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Nearly all football clubs are private companies. The biggest private companies in Europe will be larger in size than those in football. Net Zero Tracker 2025 notes “private firms, which often operate with less transparency and regulatory scrutiny, perform significantly worse on net zero target-setting and measures of integrity compared with their publicly listed counterparts.”