In this article, I look at the Green Football Weekend, which takes place across the weekend of 2-5 February; the world’s largest climate-football campaign hopes to mobilises fans, clubs, leagues and partners to take action on climate; the campaign will focus on the power of veg to help protect our world.
But how green is football and can it be a power for good.
How green are Premier League clubs?
Since 2019, the BBC published a series of annual articles on the United Nations-backed Sport Positive Summit, with rankings updated along with the criteria and methodology. Premier League clubs have been asked to provide evidence of efforts in eight categories covering policy and commitment, energy, waste, sustainable transport & biodiversity.
In 2023, the Premier League table for green clubs stood with Tottenham Hotspur as the top of the League, who have consistently been ranked highly based on their green credentials with Brentford ranked at 9, coincidentally around about the teams Premier League table performance at the end of the 2022/2023 season.
To counter the sustainability credentials, BBC Sport research found in March 2023 that there was evidence of 81 individual short-haul domestic flights made by Premier League teams to and from 100 matches during a two-month sample period this year.
Notable, flights by a Liverpool player on a flight back from Newcastle to Liverpool, a Chelsea player’s flight from London to Leicester or Nottingham Forest players on their way from East Midlands Airport to Blackpool, has caused a flurry of social media posts, that have so far been the only insight to inform the debate around Premier League clubs flying small distances to matches instead of travelling by road or rail.
However, this study of 100 games played in the UK involving Premier League teams between 19 January and 19 March 2023 has given the first insight into the volume of the controversial journeys, some as short as 27 minutes.
At the time, the Premier League pointed out that in the two-month period of the BBC Sport research, there were more than 74,000 domestic flights in the UK – putting the 81 Premier League club flights at less than 0.1% of that total.
Given that the Premier League has signed up to the UN Sport for Climate Action Framework and as a result is tasked with reaching net zero by 2040, there is little to confirm their forward planning to meet this net zero target.
In response to the BBC Sport research, the Premier League made a statement that: “The Premier League is in the process of developing an environmental sustainability strategy, which will set out plans to deliver climate action. As part of this strategy, the league will continue to engage with and work alongside clubs and partners, to find practical ways of reducing football’s environmental impact.”
A practical example: Brentford Home Shirts
In November 2021, Brentford announced that they would keep the same home kit for two seasons in a row. The club did it to ease financial pressure on fans – full kits at some clubs can cost more than £100 – and also help the environment.
In terms of their carbon footprint, a shirt made from polyester, as most football shirts are, has more than double the carbon footprint of one made from cotton at 5.5kg of carbon dioxide per shirt compared to 2.1kg. The wider environmental impacts are that even recycled polyester takes hundreds of years to decompose and can lead to microfibres escaping into the environment.
“In terms of sustainability, this is a small step in the right direction,” said Brentford Chief Executive, Jon Varney in an interview with BBC Sport.
What can Green Football Weekend achieve?
Enter the Green Football Weekend, from 18 January 18 to 5 February 2024, where fans can go to greenfootballweekend.com to score green goals for their football club, by pledging to make a green switch or taking a green action. Every green goal fans score will help their club climb up the leader board to help them win the Green Football Cup. This campaign could be a way to harness the huge influence that football clubs have in their communities and beyond for a sustainable future.
This year’s focus is about food and trying a veggie option – whether that’s cooking a veggie meal at home or choosing a veggie burger at a match. What we eat can impact our health and performance; eating more veg helps reduce injuries, improve recovery times, increase circulation; and it can help to protect our world. 
Trying a veggie option is one way you can score a goal for your club. As part of the campaign, Green Football Weekend are releasing ‘The Green Football Weekend Veggie Cookbook’ which has recipes from players, club nutritionists and chefs. It will be available at greenfootballweekend.com. Other green goals include actions like switching to sustainable transport, reducing food, or inviting your friends to join in.
On Green Football Weekend itself, 2-5 February, clubs will be taking part in greener games, taking action to reduce carbon pollution. Our Home match is on Monday, 5 February against Manchester City, so I am hoping that we can, not only, score big on the pitch but, also, for the environment.
My commitment for this year’s Green Football Weekend is to travel using sustainable transport, such as an electric vehicle powered by sustainable, renewable electricity & have a vegan option before or at half-time.
For now, there is much to celebrate about the strides made for a green Premier League and engagement with its fans over the Green Football Weekend. But, there is much more that can and should be done to reduce the League’s carbon footprint and enhance its sustainability.
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