Is it possible to be a green football fan?

Signs of the worsening climate crisis are all around us – more frequent floods, searing heatwaves and disappearing ice caps. It touches all aspects of life in a web so complex that identifying all the consequences of any single action is overwhelming.

Travelling to a football match, for example, could link a fan to the greenhouse gas emissions from their car, both from fuel and during its construction; the power and water used by the stadium; and the manufacture and transport of the food they consume there.

Diving deeper, could a fan also be implicated in the impacts of the construction of the stadium? The investments held by their club’s owner? The players’ travel? The manufacture and transport of merchandise?

There are any number of potential links, some more plausible than others. Truthfully, the issue is one of control – something we all feel we lack over a subject as mind-boggling as global heating.

There is only so much an individual can do, those in the know tell The Independent; more responsibility lies with those higher up the chain.

Let’s answer a few questions.

Professor Mike Berners-Lee, of Lancaster University, writes in his book How Bad Are Bananas? that travel generated about three-quarters of carbon emissions from the last World Cup. It makes up a major proportion of emissions for the domestic game too, he says, though it is less of a problem because flying is unnecessary.

He tells The Independent: “There are things you can do to make it lower-carbon – you can try and make sure that more often than not the matches you go to are more local. You can be careful about lift-sharing ... or of course it’s better to take public transport. All those kinds of rules apply.”

Clubs should use their resources to broker carpooling arrangements between fans, Prof Berners-Lee adds, and even lay on large-scale transport more often.

This could help mitigate one problem identified by the Football Supporters’ Association (FSA), which is that fans’ attempts to use eco-friendly public transport are often stymied by the short-notice rescheduling of matches.

The group says: “Like anyone else, fans want to follow their passion without destroying the planet but it’s not solely down to the consumer choice of individual supporters to fix this problem. It’s up to clubs, the football authorities and governments to force through serious and binding changes at the highest level.”

Finally, Dale Vince, the chair of the all-vegan Forest Green Rovers, says fans’ travel is more a matter for them than for clubs – though he agrees with Prof Berners-Lee that clubs could help by setting up park-and-ride schemes, or introducing fans to each other for car-sharing purposes.

Premier League side Brighton and Hove Albion already offers free bus and train travel to fans within a specified zone, according to sportpositiveleagues.com, though several top clubs merely advocate the use of public transport.

Good news. “All carbon footprints are about bang for buck. The pleasure that football gives so many people is so huge – if you think about a pub full of people watching a match, what a brilliant social activity for so many people, and the only carbon going on in the pub is the TV screen, which is tiny,” Prof Berners-Lee says.

In his view, fans attending matches are in a way justified in emitting carbon because of the improved atmosphere it creates for the many thousands of additional television viewers. Their footprint is thus spread more thinly across all spectators, in person and at home.

“It’s something I hadn’t really thought through for myself until I had to watch a bit of sport with no fans” thanks to Covid-19, he adds.

Food is the second thing fans are realistically able to change to reduce their carbon footprints, at home and at the match, according to Mr Vince.

He adds: “It’s about simply not eating animals. From a club’s perspective, go vegan, and at least begin by making vegan options available for fans. And that’s where there is an interaction between fans and clubs. Clubs need to help make it possible for fans to be greener.”

Most top sides offer plant-based options and several high profile players have adopted plant-based diets. Sergio Aguero, the former Manchester City striker, avoids meat during the playing season, as does Lionel Messi, while England defender Chris Smalling has adopted veganism, which he credits for keeping him injury-free.

Inroads are being made but there is further to go, Mr Vince says. Fans can only do so much, he believes – clubs and the structures above them are better able to force through widespread changes, using their status as role models for millions.

“It comes back to the point, I think, that footballers always stood up for the right things, against homophobia, racism, sexism, that kind of stuff. When I started this 10 years ago people said, ‘What’s the environment got to do with football?’ I don’t think it’s any different to those other things that football takes a stand on,” he tells The Independent.

Tackling the climate crisis is like playing a game of chicken with extraordinarily high stakes – nations and companies sometimes seem to fear change in case they are disadvantaged. But fans do have power in this regard, says Mr Vince.

He tells The Independent: “I think there is a role for fans to lobby clubs, because clubs typically do care what fans think. If you look at the Euros, there was some sponsorship there that we should definitely campaign against. Gazprom was prominent at the Euros … and fast food. Fast food gets advertised by football, McDonald’s, Coca Cola, it’s the antithesis of a healthy lifestyle being promoted by elite sport. I think that’s wrong.

“I think it’s a fairly common outlook that doing stuff for the environment is going to cost you money, or even somehow impair your quality of life. [Some think] the food will be boring or the cars will be less exciting – of course none of that stuff’s true, we’ve just got to get people to try it.

“Clubs will think like that, and, increasingly, it seems, it’s just the other way around. Actually, it’s cheaper to do environmental things than not. What we need is the government to change the rules of our economy.”

Changing tax rules to favour renewable energy and other green sectors would be one major way to help, Mr Vince says.

Some teams are already making strides, not just offering vegan food but cutting plastic, committing to zero-waste-to-landfill policies and using green energy. The English Football League says it has been working on a new centralised scheme to help clubs share tips on reducing their environmental impact, and hopes to have it up and running this season.

Climate action is a group effort, but individual changes will add up. Prof Berners-Lee says: “There’s nothing complicated, really, about the carbon footprint of football, and the actions you can take are important and straightforward.”