Littleton

Football can't exist in a bubble:
Forest Green leading the way on sustainability
The top level of the game is only just beginning to address its huge carbon
footprint but the League Two club have long made environmental responsibility
their ethos
You can imagine the groans at Old Trafford when Manchester United were drawn
with Astana of Kazakhstan in their Europa League group but the cost was more
than tricky logistics and stiffening muscles. That’s a 6,000-mile round trip and a
rough calculation (using myclimate.org) suggests 70 tonnes of CO2 would be
spewed into the air. Some context: in 2016, on average UK citizens were
responsible for 5.6 tonnes of CO2 emissions per head. Again it is hard to be
precise but that round trip accounted for roughly the same as the annual carbon
output of 1,400 people in a less developed country such as Chad.
The scheduling is not Manchester United’s fault, of course, and Trabzonspor v
Getafe and Sevilla v Qarabag were scheduled on the same evening. Nothing, it
seems must get in the way of football’s match schedulers: but as the ice caps melt
and the sea rises does Chelsea against Arsenal really have to be played in Baku?
In 2017 Syria’s national team played a 90-minute World Cup qualifier in Australia.
That’s an atmosphere-choking 17,500-mile round trip. If you can’t think of an
alternative, I would suggest you haven’t grasped the gravity of climate change.
It isn’t just the travelling. Environmental campaigners Friends of the Earth estimate
that at least six million single-use plastic cups were binned at Premier League
grounds last season. Spokesman Neil Verlander has been asking clubs what they
intend to do about it. "Football clubs are hugely influential, and although
most of the focus is on what happens on the pitch, their off-field
activities can have a
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