COP 26: Why football has to fully embrace the climate agenda

WE HAVE seen it many times over the decades, a football pitch deep in water with seagulls perched on the crossbars. Any club close to major rivers or residing on a flood plain or marshland can be vulnerable. Even before we became aware of the dangers of climate change and rising temperatures and sea levels, football clubs would occasionally become victims of excessive rainfall and swollen rivers and streams. David Goldblatt, in his paper on the subject, suggested that almost a quarter of football clubs in the Premier/EFL will be subject to flooding in the future. To some extent, it has always been somebody else’s problem, but environmental issues, like the displacement of people, is a worldwide issue that we all need to address.

Let’s start at the lower levels, because in truth, it is grassroots football that will be most affected by the consequences of water levels. Non-league football in Britain, which is arguably most connected to local communities (or should be), can become a standard-bearer for sustainability and social responsibility. However, it may be that big changes have to be made to ensure this level of the game demonstrates firm commitment.

First of all, travelling to away games should probably be restricted, in other words, journeys need to be shorter and more accessible. The biggest contributor to emissions aside from aircraft – aviation accounts for 5% of all global warming – are cars and buses. Non-league teams travelling a couple hundred miles to play in front of 250-300 people in midweek just doesn’t make sense on many counts. The answer is smaller, more localised leagues, which may not please everyone, but it would show responsibility. At the same time, energy usage can be restricted by limiting the number of floodlit games. In terms of weekend games, kick-off times could be adjusted to ensure lights are not needed in the winter, as for midweek, the calendar could be adjusted to only play midweek in the late summer and spring. Again, kick-off times could be modified to make that more feasible. If non-league is all about local people watching their local club, this should be an achievable goal.

In addition to these measures, clubs could adopt eco-friendly strategies such as water recycling and discouraging fans from driving to games. Certainly, in the small town football paradigm, there should be little need to use a car to attend a match.

Non-league and grassroots can play its part – according to the Climate Coalition, some 62,000 grassroots games are cancelled every year because of climate change – but like every aspect on environmental responsibility, it needs the bigger entities to follow suit for any projects to be successful.

UEFA have recently introduced the Europa Conference League, an additional club competition that increases the number of travelling clubs and games. This produces a 20% rise in qualifying games and 55% rise in group games. An astonishing 85% of Conference group games will be between teams that are at least 1,000 kilometres apart. Around 40% of these games involve trips of 2,000 kilometres or more.

UEFA claims to be responsible about its carbon footprint, but the multi-hosting of the European Championship seemed quite contradictory. In addition, hosting the Champions League 2021 in Porto, between two English clubs, seemed a foolhardy idea, as it did in 2019 when Madrid and Baku played host to two all-English European finals. The World Land Trust estimated that the Liverpool v Tottenham Champions League final in 2019 in Madrid would generate 10,000 tonnes of carbon. From a practical perspective, this didn’t make sense at all.

FIFA also has to ask itself if the Qatar World Cup, so controversial in many ways, is really such a responsible event given the need for air conditioning to make games more palatable. AC emits very harmful gases into the atmosphere.

AC is a completely artificial solution to a major problem and one that is counter-productive to the climate cause. Artificial pitches, so long seen as the answer to many clubs’ problems in terms of community use and fund-raising, may not be as climate friendly as people hoped. They have contributed to plastic pollution and there were health concerns about the inhalation of particles.

Experts claim that football, to send the right messages, has to reduce its reliance on sponsorship from the hydrocarbon industries. UEFA’s tie-up with Gazprom is a good place to start, but around half of the Premier League has some sort of fossil fuel sponsorship and across the other top five leagues, more than 50% of clubs have links with companies from the sectors. It is no great surprise given the amount of wealth across these industries. The world’s leading clubs, including Chelsea, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain and now Newcastle United, are owned by energy-related states, companies or individuals – the so-called “petro clubs”.

Happily, clubs embracing green strategies are on the increase, but the leader is Forest Green Rovers from the English Football League. This is a club that has risen from non-league and has shown that an unwavering commitment across every aspect of the club’s operations can be successful and replicable. Tottenham Hotspur’s new ground has also been constructed with environmental responsibility at the forefront, including repurposing the old stadium’s rubble. Other clubs, such as Arsenal, Brighton, Hibernian, Ajax and Borussia Dortmund, have all included sustainability in their business model. Initiatives like “Game Zero”, which took place at the Tottenham v Chelsea Premier League match in 2021-22, are laudable, but how did the fans get to the game?

The environmental cost of travelling to games has to be factored in, hence pan-European competition must surely be under threat, but pre-season tours of Asia and the Americas have to be considered superfluous.

Adapting to change has to be a priority for clubs and governing bodies, indeed the whole of global sport. Football, globally, emits about 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year, the same as a small country like Denmark. This fact, along with the social position of the game has, makes it ideally placed to influence and inspire way beyond its boundaries.

Macclesfield: The Silkmen eventually cometh

IT HAS not been a good season for Macclesfield Town and the future remains very uncertain for a club that ranks among the smallest in the Football League. Just 35 miles away, Bury provides a reminder of what can happen to a club that loses its way and becomes the victim of financial mismanagement and owner dissatisfaction.

If nothing goes according to plan, Macclesfield may yet go the same way as Bury, although the club’s current owner, Amar Nouri Alkadhi, claims he is having “superior negotiations” with a potential buyer. That may well be Joe Sealey, the son of the late Coventry and Manchester United goalkeeper Les Sealey. Some fans are sceptical that discussions are taking place at all.

Macclesfield have just appointed their third manager of the season, Mark Kennedy, who follows former England central defender Sol Campbell and Daryl McMahon. Campbell took on the job as his first management role in the game, but left just a week or so into the 2019-20 season and was owed £ 180,000 by the club. McMahon left recently, fed-up with the club’s precarious financial situation and attracted by a job with non-league Dagenham & Redbridge. Kennedy made all the right noises when he took over: “What we want to do is for fans to be going home every week with points on the board and a smile on their face from us doing it the right way,” he said.

The Silkmen have been making the wrong sort of headlines all season, their players going on strike, wages not being paid on time, a points deduction and a winding-up petition that has now been postponed 10 times. Their court appearance will go ahead on March 25 – or will it? The most worrying aspect may be that Macclesfield owe the taxman money, and that rarely ends happily. You have to sympathise with the long-suffering fans, who remain passionate, albeit in smaller numbers than in the past.

Unsurprisingly, there is something of a gloomy atmosphere around the club, indeed the town. “Everyone is unhappy at Macclesfield. They don’t like the owner and people think the club will probably go under or have to reform,” said the taxi driver that took me to the Moss Rose ground. There’s an ominous sight when you arrive at the stadium, hoardings for a demolition company and a building site in front of the ground.

What is the future for clubs like Macclesfield Town. Would non-league football be more suitable?

Apparently, some fans have stayed away from the Moss Rose in protest. Certainly their crowds this season suggest people are probably voting with their feet. Sub-2,000 attendances are frequent (current average just over 2,000) which must be a big cashflow problem for the club, even though they have one of the smallest wage bills in the Football League (2018-19 average of £ 750 per week per player).

This is Macclesfield’s second season since they won promotion back to the Football League in 2017-18. Their first spell in the league was between 1997 and 2012. In their debut campaign, they were averaging almost 3,000 at the Moss Rose, but by the time they went down, they had lost more than 20% of their audience.

With 50,000 people in Macclesfield, an average gate of 2,000 represents a reasonable 4% of the local population, but there are many distractions for football followers – the club is surrounded by competition for fan affection: Manchester (20 miles), Liverpool (44), Stoke (22), Sheffield (36) and Derby (40), are all within range. Their gates are more in keeping with a lower step in the football pyramid.

Forest Green Rovers were the visitors on January 25, a club that also ranks among the poorest supported in League Two. They have been receiving a lot of publicity over the ideological and substainable way they run their organisation. As the first Vegan club in Britain (probably the world), they are certainly tapping into the mood of the moment. They were top of League Two recently, but before arriving at the Moss Rose, they had won just twice in 10 games and dropped to 9^th in the table.

For a long time, Forest Green looked like they would leave Cheshire with all three points. They took a first half lead through Carl Winchester’s 25-yard low drive on 18 minutes and were in control until they missed an early second half penalty from Josh March, an excellent save from goalkeeper Jonathan Mitchell, recently signed on loan from Derby County.

With 16 minutes to go, Macclesfield finally gave their fans something to cheer about, Joe Ironside shooting home with a tame effort through a crowded area. But there was a setback in the 80^th minute when they lost Corey O’Keeffe to a red card after he executed the perfect “professional foul” when March raced towards goal. Macclesfield kept going and the game was won in spectacular fashion by a superb left-footed volley by Arthur Gnahoua from 30 yards. A 2-1 win for Macclesfield, a result that looked very improbable earlier in the afternoon.

There were just 1,600 people at the game which did make you wonder what the outlook is for small clubs like Macclesfield. Would they be better off as a non-league outfit – are the odds just too great for them to be successful at Football League level? With the exception of the 1997-98 season, their first in the league when they won promotion at the first attempt, life hasn’t exactly been a bed of roses at the Moss Rose. What would Macc regulars really like to see – a successful team playing at a slightly lower level or a life as a perennial Football League struggler that cannot compete financially with many of its peers? It’s a tough and unpopular question to ask, but equally, a hard one to answer with the head rather than the heart of a devotee. It’s clear that Macclesfield Town have a few battles to fight in the coming weeks and months, with the biggest challenge undoubtedly coming from the courtroom. Those that cherish English football’s 92-club structure will wish them well.

@GameofthePeople

Photos: GOTP

Major clubs need to create the right climate

RIGHT NOW, climate change is a very topical issue, and rightly so. If the scientists are correct, we may all face some serious issues in the relatively near future, issues that cannot be ignored or dismissed as scaremongering.

Football has to ask itself what role it can play in combating climate change. We are told that there are three things that we most certainly do as a start: ensure we do not waste food; eat less meat like beef and lamb; and travel less by air. Although these three conditions may seem rather trivial, consider the impact on the football industry and the periphery of the game.

But first of all, we should ask how much energy it takes to put a game of football on. For a start, floodlit games must cost an awful lot to stage, cost-wise and in its energy usage. I recall reading a couple of years ago that the home of Arsenal, the Emirates has a battery storage system that can provide enough energy for an entire 90-minute match. Presumably, they are not the only club with this type of facility.

Increasingly, new stadiums are being built with ecology in mind. In Morro da Mineiro, Brazil, a football pitch has been constructed that uses human energy to power its lighting. It cost just US$ 100,000 to create and uses underground kinetic tiles that convert player movement into energy to power the lights. Given this is Brazil, the land of joga bonito, apparently the lights work even better when players apply some typically skilful Brazilian movement!

Clubs should be asking themselves if their summer tours to the other side of the world are really necessary

One of the most high profile club commitments to ecology can be found at Forest Green Rovers, whose New Lawn Stadium not only has the world’s first organic pitch, but also sources its power from 100 solar panels. All rain water is recycled and the catering at the club is 100% Vegan. The club has also announced a plan for a new, completely sustainable stadium, which is still to be approved.

Lower down the pyramid, Dartford FC’s new ground has caught the imagination of a lot of people. From the outside, Princes Park looks very attractive, with sleek lines and tasteful facades. It doesn’t look like the average bolt-together ground comprising modern corrugation and slabs of concrete. Some thought has clearly gone into it. Furthermore, it is low level, which we are told is aimed at reducing noise and light pollution. And, most strikingly, although I didn’t notice it myself when I visited Dartford, the entire ground has a sedum roof blanket, which, for the uninitiated, is a grass roof. In fact, almost every aspect of the stadium has been built in the name of ecology.

Where there is a large football crowd, there is the potential for pollution, but in some countries, the discarded burger box or drinking cup is a thing of the past. In Japan, after a game, the fans recycle their litter and ensure they don’t leave anything behind. Before a game, “stadium sanitation” rules are displayed on the electronic scoreboard, ranging from rubbish disposal instructions and pleas to respect other spectators’ privacy. It’s typical of the Japanese and their self-discipline – this is no gimmick, it is a reflection of a way of life.

One thing we should perhaps ask ourselves is whether clubs really need to fly around the world for summer tours and ambassadorial friendlies. We know why they embark on these tours, in order to spread the love among the global franchise and in order to monetise their audience. But if flying is such a toxic pollutant, then surely we should start to ask (as they did in WW2), “is your journey necessary?”.

And if cattle farming and the production of beef is something that needs to be reined in, we could, eventually, see the demise of the dreaded burger. Football, indeed all sporting events, will need to find something else for the staple diet of football fans. The owner of Forest Green Rovers could provide some advice there!

There’s little doubt that we will need to alter the way we live in the future. The world’s resources are becoming scarcer, raw materials are getting consumed at an alarming rate and the weather seems to be becoming more extreme. Sometimes it is difficult to persuade politicians, corporations and governments that we must do something, but a 16 year-old from Sweden made people sit up and take notice. Football, as most popular sport and one of the planet’s most effective people attractors, could really help point the way for the rest of the world. The game as a force for good.

Photo: PA